Ktl
W'f
1
'hi
ill
■ 1
I
i
i
i
t
1
i
i
I
■1!
i
1
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
THE
LITTLE DEMOCRACY
A TEXT-BOOK ON
COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION
BY
IDA CLYDE qLARKE
AUTBOB OV "AMEBICAN WOMEN AND THE WOHU) WAB," ETC.
WITH INTRODUCTION BY
P. P. CLAXTON
V. 8. COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
NEW YORK LONDON
1918
COPTBIGHT, 1918, BY
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
OCT -9 1918
Printed in the United States of America
f , ©aA503761
To My Father
CHARLES WILLIAM GALLAGHER
WHO ESTABLISHED IN HIS HOME
THE FIBST "LITTLE DEMOCRACY"
I EVER KNEW
I INSCRIBE THIS BOOK
"Every school district should be a little democracy,
and the schoolhouse the Community Capitol."
P. P. Claxton,
U. S. Commissioner of Education.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
The Community Center movement in America has
been slowly but steadily gaining momentum for a
number of years, but it took a state of war to turn
into a single channel the full power of every or-
ganized effort in that direction. Very early in the
war there came a realization that the 50,000,000 civil-
ian population could render more effective service
through group organizations. This became apparent
to me through the thousands of letters I received, as
"Washington Editor of Pictorial Review, and in re-
sponse to a wide demand for information on com-
munity organization I wrote for the magazine a ser-
ies of articles on this subject. I searched the coun-
try for concrete examples of successful community
organization, as few experiments had been made on
a large scale and facts of practical value were difficult
to secure. While these articles were running in the
magazine a great driving force was injected into the
community work ; the Government, through the Coun-
cil of National Defense, the United States Bureau of
Education, and the Woman 's Committee of the Coun-
cil of National Defense, inaugurated a nation-wide
campaign in the interest of community organization.
ix
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
For years the United States Department of Agricul-
ture has been directing highly successful cooperative
work among people of the rural districts. I have
made no attempt to cover this in detail, but have out-
lined the work in a few of its phases in the hope that
interest may be stimulated and that a wider use may
be made of the vast amount of valuable material on
the subject that is at all times available at Wash-
ington.
The book does not pretend to present any views I
may personally have on the methods of community
organization; I am not an expert but a student, and
therefore I have merely tried to present, in logical
sequence and in convenient and condensed form, the
views of experts in various lines of community work
for the benefit of other students of this important
subject.
The book would not have been possible except for
the generous and enthusiastic assistance of Dr. Henry
B. Jackson, Expert in Community Work of the United
States Bureau of Eduation. I am also indebted to
Mr. 0. B. Martin, and to other officials of the States
Relations Service of the United States Department
of Agriculture, for guidance in the selection of bulle-
tins from which the material on rural community or-
ganization has been taken.
Ida Clyde Clabke.
Washington, D. C.
CONTENTS
PAOB
Introduction ... By Dr. P. P. Claxton,
U. S. Commissioner op Education . . xiii
CHAFTBB
I. The Community Center Movement . 1
II. Organizing The Community Center . 31
(As recommended by the United
States Bureau of Education)
III. A Model Constitution . . . .56
IV. The Community Forum, The Neigh-
borhood Club, and The Home and
School League . . . .70
(As suggested by Dr. Henry E. Jack-
son, Government Expert in Com-
munity Work)
V. Community Buying and Banking . 83
(As suggested by Dr. Henry E. Jack-
son, Government Expert in Com-
munity Work)
VI. The Community Garden ... 99
(Plan recommended by Professor
Hugh Findlay of U. S. Dept. of Agri-
culture, formerly of Syracuse Uni-
versity)
xi
CONTENTS
CBAFTEB PAGB
VII. The Community Market . . . 121
(Plan recommended by the United
States Bureau of Markets)
VIII. The Community Kitchen . . . 142
IX. Organizing the Eural Community . 161
(Plan suggested by United States De-
partment of Agriculture)
X. Boys' and Girls' Clubs . . . 182
(Plan in operation by the United
States Department of Agriculture)
XI. Mothers' and Daughters' Clubs. . 200
(Plan in operation by the United
States Department of Agriculture)
XII. Community Music .... 221
XIII. Community Drama .... 241
ZIl
INTRODUCTION
Pioneer life in America with its broad marches,long
lines of frontier, sparse population and limited means
of intercourse, stimulated independence and called for
individual effort. To an extent unknown elsewhere in
the modern world it fostered the spirit of self-reliance
and the power of individual initiative, which for a cen-
tury and a half have been the most characteristic feat-
ures of the American people and have contributed
most to our strength and our unprecedented attain-
ments. But increase in population and wealth, scien-
tific knowledge and modern methods of industry and
means of travel and intercourse demand organization
and cooperation and turn individualism from strength
into weakness. Things that were formerly of interest
only to the individual or the family now concern
vitally the entire community and local community
interests extend to municipality, county, State and
Nation. With all this have come also a large exten-
sion of the spirit of democracy and a tendency to
depend on the people for initiative and final decision
in many things that formerly would have been left to
their representatives in legislative bodies. Public
opinion and popular sentiment become constantly
more pervasive and more powerful. For the safety"
xiii ,
INTRODUCTION
and welfare of the people and of the country public
opinion must be intelligent and enlightened and pop-
ular sentiment must be free from the corruption of
self-seeking and narrow partisanship and sectarian-
ism. The need for developing and uniting the full
strength of the Nation for success in the great war in
which we are engaged, not for self-aggrandizement but
for the freedom of the world, has given a sudden
impulse toward national organization and has shown
that this can never be made effective except through
community organization. "We see now more clearly
than ever before that the strength of a nation like ours
depends on the developed strength of all of its con-
stituent units and that a democracy must be alive in
all its parts. For the welfare and safety of the dem-
ocratic republic every final local community unit of it
must be intelligent, virtuous and united for the public
good. In these local communities the people must
come together on terms of democratic equality for
mutual instruction in regard to all things of common
interest to them as members of these local communi-
ties and as members of the larger communities, of
municipality, county, State and Nation. Here also
they must learn to cooperate in production, exchange
and consumption for the protection of life, the pro-
motion of health, the education of themselves and
their children, and for all those things which can be
had only in common and obtained only by united
effort.
In response to an increasing consciousness of the
xiv
INTRODUCTION
need for such organization and cooperation many
agencies are at work and many persons are attempt-
ing to set forth the principles and methods necessary
for success. The Little Democracy^ by Ida Clyde
Clarke, summarizes quite fully and effectively the
best that has been done and will be welcomed by the
rapidly increasing and already large number of peo-
ple interested in various forms of community organ-
ization and cooperation.
P. P. Claxton.
Washington, D. C.
T9
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
CHAPTER I
THE COMMUNITY CENTER MOVEMENT
The Government of the United States has
asked that every community in America,
in town and countryside, organize itself into a
"little democracy," to the end that we may
more quickly achieve that world-wide democ-
racy which is our ideal, and in defense of which
we have pledged to fight with all the resources
at our command. The Council of National De-
fense and the United States Bureau of Educa-
tion have cooperated in a campaign in the
interest of organizing a ** Community Coun-
cil" in every school district, in every state in
the Union, and the Woman's Committee of the
Council of National Defense has put forth its
best efforts in support of the plan. President
1
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
Wilson stated, succinctly and forcibly, the
whole purpose of this plan in his letter to the
chairmen of the State Councils of Defense
when he said:
"Your state, in extending its national de-
fense organization by the creation of Commu-
nity Councils, is in my opinion making an ad-
vance of vital significance. It will, I believe,
result, when thoroughly carried out, in welding
the nation together as no nation of great size
has ever been welded before. It will build up
from the bottom an understanding and sympa-
thy and unity of purpose and effort which will
no doubt have an immediate and decisive effect
upon our great undertaking. You will find it,
I think, not so much a new task as a unifica-
tion of existing efforts, a fusion of energies
now too much scattered and at times somewhat
confused, into one harmonious and effective
power. It is only by extending your organiza-
tion to small communities that every citizen
of the State can be reached and touched with
the inspiration of the common cause. The
schoolhouse has been suggested as an apt
though not essential center for your local coun-
cil. It symbolizes one of the first fruits of such
2
THE COMMUNITY CENTER MOVEMENT
an organization, namely, the spreading of the
realization of the great truth that it is each one
of us as an individual citizen upon whom rests
the ultimate responsibility. Through this great
new organization we will express with added
emphasis our will to win and our confidence
in the utter righteousness of our purpose."
As President Wilson has suggested we are
not asked to contemplate any new ideas, for
the Community Movement is almost world-old.
We find it among the Christians in the cata-
combs ; in the guilds of medieval times ; in the
group organization of the Artel and the Mir in
Russia; in the social center work everywhere;
in the broadly conceived playground move-
ment; in our modern system of education. In
these and many ways we find the old ideal
struggling to express itself, until now, when
the very bulwarks of our civilization seem
threatened, the cruel and costly demands of
war have thrown into the limelight the one in-
strument, ready made to our hand that can
"weld the nation together as no nation of
great size has ever been welded before." There
3
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
are many who believe with John Collier that
*'In Eussia today these Community Centers,
thousands of years old, are being welded into
organization along modem lines, and that new
Eussia, Imperial Eussia, the Eussia which wiU
fight great wars, and not only military wars,
the Eussia which will yet blossom as the most
glorious of all the flowers of national life — ^the
roots of that Eussia will be living roots grow-
ing out of a folk life, a local community life
comparable in fairly close detail to the town
meetings and Jto the Community Centers in
America today. '* And who doubts that out of
the Community Center movement as it is being
presented to us today there will come a more
unified America and a wider application of the
democratic principle for which the most en-
lightened nations of the world have staked
their all.
The Neighborhood the Unit. — ^America is the
sum total of thousands upon thousands of
neighborhoods, and therefore the neighborhood
is the logical unit of the Community Center
organization. The labors of the educator and
4
THE COMMUNITY CENTER MOVEMENT
the statesman are more conspicuous but not
more important than the labors of the commu-
nity organizer, for no patriotic work can rival
in value that of the group of people who stead-
ily build toward a common consciousness, a
common purpose, and a common devotion.
Thousands of organizations, based on altruistic
principles and founded and grounded in a de-
sire to serve humanity, sprang up and died be-
fore they developed definitely in the conscious-
ness of the people the realization that it is
necessary to get at the first unit, to reach peo-
ple in their original habitat, to deal with funda-
mentals, before we can hope to have a national
mind, to think nationally, and to feel nation-
ally. Dr. Graham Taylor has said:
'*I don't know what is coming with suflBcient
centrifugal force to drive us together, but I
believe we never can be driven together except
in these neighborhood units; the city is made
up of its neighborhoods, and can be no strong-
er than its neighborhood power. Whatever
comes the state and the nation will be stronger
5
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
when the local comnmnities shall be linked to-
gether. ' *
Has the war furnished the centrifugal force
that is to drive us together? Will the Commu-
nity Center Movement, started in many ways
and in many places, gain the needed impetus,
now that the full power of the United States
Government has been turned on? The answer
remains with every community in America —
with every man, woman and child in these com-
munities.
Dr. Shailer Mathews says:
''Democracy in the eighteenth century was
essentially a fight to get rights that somebody
else had that we thought we ought to have.
It was a great and a tremendous struggle for
rights. Under the conception of certain phi-
losophies men thought that democracy was a
sort of replevin of stolen rights. But as we
have gone on during these hundred years there
has grown up this tremendous and wonderful
conception complementary to the struggle to
get rights, namely, the great conception that
we must give other people rights, and the world
6
THE COMMUNITY CENTER MOVEMENT
justice, and to give justice has come to be a
bigger and more appealing ideal than to get
rights."
And this is the ideal, this is the variety of
democracy that can live and flourish in the
soil of the Community Center.
The School as the Center. — If the neighbor-
hood is the logical unit of organization for a
real democracy, it seems almost obvious that
the public school is the logical center. The
United States Government has invested in the
Public School system the impressive sum of
$1,347,000,000, a fact which undoubtedly justi-
fies the wider use of the public school buildings
— the use of them all the year through and the
use of them by adults as well as by children.
There has been during recent years a marked
and growing tendency for the public school to
develop into a house of the people to be used
by them, for mutual aid in self-development.
This idea is at the very heart of the Community
Center movement and it is the touchstone of its
value for the national welfare.
7
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
The schoolhouse is the logical center for the
commiuiity orgamzation because schoolhouses
are the property of the people and because
they are conveniently distributed in every sec-
tion of the country. President Wilson's pro-
nouncement on this subject is full of ringing
truths. He said:
"A vision of the meaning of democracy
opens before us when we conceive of citizens
going to school to one another in the common
schoolhouses to understand and answer public
questions, as hitherto only representatives of
the citizens (in legislatures) have gone to
school to one another in the buildings provided
for them.
''When we make this use of these buildings
that belong to all of us, that stand ready in
every neighborhood in America, we are recov-
ering in a very practical way the institution
which freemen have always and everywhere
held fundamental — ^the institution of common
counsel and mutual comprehension. In this
restoration of the ancient equipment and prac-
tice of freemen, we are meeting a vital need
of our new and complex age. We are answer-
8
THE COMMUNITY CENTER MOVEMENT
ing the necessity that a simple means be found
whereby, by an interchange of points of view,
men of differing private interests and opinions
may get together upon the common ground of
public responsibility; the necessity, which is
made acute by the fact that the process of
modem industry, the process of modem poli-
tics, the whole process of modern life is a proc-
ess from which we must exclude misunder-
standings.
**If there is, anywhere in the United States,
a person who objects to this use of the other-
wise-idle public buildings for frank, orderly,
all-sided consideration of the facts regarding
matters of general concern, you may be reason-
ably sure that there is being concealed behind
that person something which particularly needs
to be looked into. Nothing that ought to be kept
will be hurt by the fair and thorough discussion
of citizens in neighborhood assembly.
**The spread and growth of this movement
by which schoolhouses, instead of less worthy
places, are coming to be used as voting centers,
and by which these appropriate buildings are
being opened to serve, not the children only,
but all the people of their communities, must
encourage and challenge to cooperation every
9
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
man and woman who shares the spirit of Amer-
ica and appreciates the immediate and primary
importance of visualizing the conmaon inter-
est." With rare eloquence and convincing
logic Dr. Philander P. Claxton, United States
Commissioner of Education, has stated his
views on the subject of the schoolhouse as the
capitol of the ' ' Little Democracy. ' '
**To make more valuable to the people those
things from which the people are accustomed
to derive value [says Dr. Claxton] has very
appropriately been said to be the prime busi-
ness of legislators. That the schoolhouse,
whose value to the people is already great, may
become still more valuable to them, is the pur-
pose of the community organization movement.
A great democracy like ours, extending over
three and one-half million square miles of ter-
ritory and including more than one hundred
million people, must be alive, intelligent, and
virtuous in all its parts ; every unit of it must
be democratic. The ultimate unit in every
State, Territory and possession of the United
States is the school district; every school dis-
trict should therefore be a little democracy,
and the schoolhouse should be the community
capitol ; here the people should meet to discuss
10
THE COMMUNITY CENTER MOVEMENT
among themselves their common interests and
to devise methods of helpful cooperation. It
should also be the social center of the commu-
nity, where all the people come together in a
neighborly way on terms of democratic equal-
ity, learn to know each other, and extend and
enrich their community sjrmpathies.
*'To this purpose the schoolhouse is especial-
ly fitted; it is non-sectarian and non-partisan;
the property of no individual, group or clique,
but the common property of all; the one place
in every community where all have equal rights
and are equally at home. The schoolhouse is
also made sacred to every family and the com-
munity as a whole by the fact that it is the
home of their children and the training place
of future citizens; here all members of the
community may appropriately send themselves
to school to each other and learn from each
other of all things pertaining to the life of the
local community, the State, the Nation, and
the world. The appropriation of the school-
house for community uses has well been called
a master-stroke of a new democracy.
** These facts are not new, but the emphasis
on their importance is new and amounts to a
new discovery. The Nation's immediate need
11
THE LITTLE DEMOCRAGT
to mobilize the sentiments of the people and
to make available the material resources has
directed special attention to the schoolhouse
as an effective agency ready-made to its hand
for this purpose. The National importance of
this new discovery is evidenced by the fact that
the Council of National Defense has planned
a nation-wide movement to organize the school
districts of the United States as a means of
bringing to the people information in regard
to the immediate needs of the nation and cre-
ating and ^unifying sentiment for the National
defense. In order that this organization may
be made most effective and be made permanent,
the Council expressed a desire to cooperate
with the Bureau of Education."
Basic Principles of Commimity Movement. —
The Community Center Movement does not aim
merely to increased efficiency measured by the
standards of the factory and machine industry.
** Human beings," said John Collier, President
of the National Community Center Association,
"are not to be dealt with as if they were pas-
sive material, like iron ore or cotton thread,
which can be taken and put in a machine and
12
THE COMMUNITY CENTER MOVEMENT
hammered or woven and put through special-
ized processes and turned out at the end a fin-
ished product. Unconsciously we have modeled
our governmental efficiency on the efficiency
which has characterized the nineteenth century,
which is the efficient production of wealth, of
goods ; and of course goods have no memories,
no hopes, no rights, no souls. See those highly
complicated welfare activities threading their
way among the people ; see the unconsciousness
of the people as they are being operated upon
by the truant officer, by employment agent, by
protective devices of one kind or another; see
their unconsciousness as they are touched here
and touched there by these highly efficient and
highly specialized ministrations of government,
and see if the picture of the people as being
mere passive material does not hold good. The
people are not conscious of what the govern-
ment is aiming at. The development of our
centralized welfare work in government and
private social service is being carried out on
the machine patterns, and we must discover
some way by which to bring all these purposes
13
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
of government to bear on the personality of
the common man, which means all of us. We
must discover some way to enlist a passionate
and continuous personal response from the in-
dividual so that he will, as he alone can do,
shape himself through cooperating in the com-
mon purpose."
The Community Center Movement seems to
answer this need, for its underlying purpose
is to bring the mass of people into day-by-day
working relations with constructive operations
of the government. This of course establishes
a very important relation between the Com-
munity Center and the whole problem of gov-
ernment. The Community Center proposes that
the people should govern themselves ; it asserts
that there are vast stores of unreleased energy
in every neighborhood; and that the organiza-
tion of the neighborhood is the power that helps
to release these energies to the interest of the
whole of society.
The Glorified Mill-Pond. — But back of the
Community Center Movement there is some-
thing more — something that lies at the base of
14
THE COMMUNITY CENTER MOVEMENT
every fundamental. It is something spiritually
deeper than these things that are translatable
into words, something that may be realized but
never comprehended by the finite mind. In
Hopedale, Mass., there was an ugly mill pond,
a bare, bulrush-shored, mucky stretch of bog
and y^ater that nestled up close to the heart
of the town. But the community organized,
and someone saw the possibilities of that dingy
morass. The lakelet was drained, dead trees
removed, boulders blasted, and God's own trees
and flowers were given a chance to grow in
their own way. The sermon of the mill pond
and the spiritual conception back of every sin-
cerely planned Community Movement is ex-
pressed in one sentence at the end of the story
of the transformed mill pond; it is this: '^The
whole morale of the village is raised and trans-
figured by Hopedale' s glorified mill pond."
Existing Organisations. — However glorious
the future of the Community Movement may
be the debt it owes to the work of previously
existing organizations will never be forgotten,
nor will any dazzling success of the future
15
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
obliterate the successes of the past, when pio-
neer workers, catching the vision, struggled
through the darkness of half -awakened public
opinion and laid the foundation stones upon
which we to-day are building. The American
Civic Association was a result of a realization
that size in the building of our cities, without
coordination, in a spirit of beauty and useful-
ness, was a menace rather than an asset.
Among the subjects seriously studied and in-
telligently dealt with by this association since
it was organized more than a dozen years ago
are the community drama, the use of the
schools as Community Centers, government
city planning and park development, billboard
and noise nuisance, good roads, country archi-
tecture, national parks and better homes for
wage earners. The contribution of this asso-
ciation to the general welfare of the country
cannot be overestimated, and to those specif-
ically interested in these and other civic ques-
tions its work is cordially commended, for
President Wilson has said, ''War must not de-
stroy our civic efficiency." The organization
16
THE COMMUNITY CENTER MOVEMENT
has headquarters at Washington, D. C. The
National Community Center Association con-
cerns itself, as its name implies, with the prob-
lems of community organization, and is doing
a splendid work. The national headquarters
are at 123 Madison Street, Chicago. The Na-
tional Playground-Eecreation Association of
America has done such broadly valuable work
that its activities have been linked up with
the Commission on Training Camp Activities,
in connection with which it is doing much
constructive war work. These and other or-
ganizations have been too conspicuously suc-
cessful not to be mentioned here, and each of
them has immediately before it a much wider
field of usefulness than it has enjoyed before.
In anything like a summing up of the debt
the Community Center Movement owes to the
past, the work of the settlement must be men-
tioned, for it has a distinct place in the Com-
munity Center Movement. In fact, every set-
tlement in America, as it has sought to bridge
the gulf between the plain man and the expert
worker, has shortened the distance to the ulti-
17
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
mate goal of every sincere social service work-
er. And we are moving rapidly indeed now
toward this goal. Those who doubt it should
learn of the Community Clearing House Plan
devised by the New York Committee on Unad-
justed Children in the Gramercy District of
New York City; the National Social Unit or-
ganization recently put in operation in Cincin-
nati, or the social service plans in any of our
larger cities.
The Problem of the City. — Heretofore those
who have focused their attention on the prob-
lems of the city have had little in common with
those who are specifically interested in the im-
provement of country life. They have studied
the same basic problem, it is true, but from
such vastly different angles that it has some-
times seemed that two unrelated problems have
been presented. The Conununity Movement is
the key to the whole problem — it represents a
principle that is fundamental, and therefore it
applies to the city as well as to the country. A
Community may be organized with equal prom-
ise of success in city or village, or countryside.
18
THE COMMUNITY CENTER MOVEMENT
The most conspicuous social growth of our
modem civilization is that thing we call a city,
and so complex have become its problems that
some of the master minds of the day have con-
centrated on them. Many serious, thinking
peopl'^ are asking, "Has the city broken
downl! Has it failed to meet the demands that
have been put upon it? Are new problems
piling up faster than we can solve the existing
ones?" Mr. John E. Lathrop, who made an
intensive study of the problems of two hun-
dred cities while he was engaged with the
American City Bureau, and who was director
of the city planning exhibit shown in thirty
cities of the United States, Canada and South
America, gives some startling figures and cites
some amazing facts. From 1900 to 1910 pop-
ulation of the cities increased much more rap-
idly than that of the country. With increas-
ing population in the city there must be in-
creased facilities, and the problem of trans-
portation looms larger and larger, while the
cost of operation increases per capita with in-
creased population. In 1905 New York spent
19
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
^90,000,000 for subways. The added facilities
"were absorbed in six months, and the cars were
more crowded at that time than they had been
before. Seven years later, having endured to
the utmost, the city planned more subways —
$350,000,000 of them. And thus in ten years
New York City made debts of $440,000,000 to
«olve its transportation problem. Yet who can
say that the new subways will be adequate to
meet the increasing demands of an enlarged
city? Of striking interest in this connection is
the statement of Mr. Theodore P. Shonts, Pres-
ident of the Interboro Transit Company of New
York, who said: *'Each year the problem of
handling the millions of New York traffic grows
increasingly difficult. The struggle is hard, not
to anticipate the city's future needs, but mere-
ly to keep up with the present. Public Service
Commissioner Travis H. Whitney estimates
that city traffic is increasing at the rate of more
than 100,000,000 annually. We seem to be
working in a circle: (1) added facilities; (2)'
more population; (3) more congestion."
The Croton water supply was provided
20
THE COMMUNITY CENTER MOVEMENT
at great expense. Immediately a new sup-
ply was planned at a cost of nearly $200,-
000,000. Bridges have been built by New York
which have cost nearly $100,000,000, and sev-
eral others have been planned, one to cost $42,-
000,000. Freight terminals are proposed for
New York in Brooklyn to cost perhaps $100,-
000,000. The passenger terminals of the New
York Central and Pennsylvania Railroads cost
at least $500,000,000. The improvements to
Riverside Drive and the covered freight tracks
of the New York Central are to cost something
like $50,000,000. In the five years it took to
build the new subways the regular expense of
New York City was $100,000,000 a year, or
$500,000,000 in the five years. In this period
other improvements will probably aggregate
$100,000,000. In 1915 the Comptroller was
quoted ofiBcially as saying that New York City
during that fiscal year had received more than
$500,000,000 and disbursed more than $500,-
000,000, so that during the five year period the
total will be the unthinkable total of $2,500,-
000,000, or at 5,000,000 population, a per capita
21
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
of $500. In, reviewing these staggering figures
Mr. Lathrop says:
*'As New York's population grows, the fig-
ures per capita are constantly increased. Un-
less something cures this balloon-like tendency,
these charges per capita will reach $1,000, or
twice a whole year's total income of the aver-
age representative adult worker in the United
States. What is the use in going on in this
fashion? Is it pessimism to pause to consider?
Is it not simple wisdom to do so ? What busi-
ness can endure when costs pile up faster than
returns ? ' '
This presents a bird's-eye view of some of
the purely material problems of the city, but
how much greater are those in which human
life and human welfare and human progress
are concerned; problems which cannot be
stated in figures or crystalized in facts. These
problems, too, are receiving the most thought-
ful and the most expensive attention. Germany
places a higher economic value on human be-
ings than she does on material wealth, but she
has dehumanized herself in the process of
22
THE COMMUNITY CENTER MOVEMENT
working out this policy, for the reason that
the rights of the individual are ignored, and
human beings are manipulated, ground up, if
need be, to satisfy the iron will of the few. If
in America we are learning to value humanity
more and the material less, we must attain
our ideal of democracy by developing in the
individual the desire and the intelligence to
exercise the right to speak for himself in all
of those matters that concern himself. It has
been asserted that there are in the city of New
York no less than one hundred and forty-seven
organizations doing welfare work of one kind
or another — one hundred and forty-seven agen-
cies occupying expensive buildings, employing
expensive staffs, engaging the sincere and often
sacrificial services of master minds, operating
on an unconscious public! The need is not to
interrupt the work of these agencies, but to in-
tensify and coordinate it, and to make it more
effective.
Who will not be willing to give the Conmiu-
nity plan of decentralization a chance — ^who
will not be glad to see the Community principle
23
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
applied to suffering New York and to other
cities?
The Problem of the Coumtry. — As in the city,
so in the country, the main problem is that of
transportation. A century ago when the farm-
er made the larger number of things necessary
for the use of the family, the problem was not
so great. With the development of modern
machinery the farmer must buy his machinery
and tools, his clothing, and even much of his
food from the manufacturer, or from the mer-
chant who is the salesman of the manufacturer.
Manufactured articles are sold as freely to the
countryman as they are to the man who dwells
in town. It is a matter of indifference to the
manufacturer who buys his wares, so long as
he sells them. But the city man, being nearer
the manufacturer, has the advantage in trans-
portation. The farmer not only has to consider
how to get the things he wants from town, but
how to get the things he wants to sell to the
markets. Such problems of the country led the
farmers to see that only by cooperation could
they help matters. One of the first organiza-
24
THE COMMUNITY CENTER MOVEMENT
tions of farmers was the Grangers, sometimes
called Patrons of Industry. This organization
was brought about by 0. H. Kelly, whom Pres-
ident Johnson sent to the South immediately
after the Civil War to study agricultural con-
ditions. It became a powerful order and at one
time had a membership of nearly a quarter of
a million. Another order of great power was
the Farmers' AUiance, organized in Texas in
1876, for the purpose of punishing land and
cattle thieves. Smaller organizations of sim-
ilar character were later combined with the
Farmers' Alliance, which at one time had a
membership of over 5,000,000. The Farmers'
Union of today is the successor of the Farm-
ers' Alliance*.
Then came Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, with his
great vision and his remarkable mind. As
someone said of him, he spent seventy years
of preparation for seven years of work. He
began on the greatest work of his life in 1911
by organizing the Farmers ' Cooperative Work
in Texas to fight the boll weevil that was mak-
ing much havoc with the cotton crops. The next
25
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
year, so striking had been his success, Con-
gress furnished funds, and with the assistance
of some local business men, he appointed agents
and began to organize a few counties in Texas.
The work attracted attention and Congress en-
larged its appropriation. In a few short years
this work had covered the entire South, had a
force of more than 1,000 agents, an enrollment
of more than 100,000 farmers, 75,000 boys in
the corn clubs, and 25,000 girls in the canning
clubs. In the year before Dr. Knapp died, Eus-
sia, Brazil, England, South Africa and Argen-
tina sent representatives to this country to
study the demonstration work. Sir Horace
Plunkett, the great Irish reformer, came for
the same purpose, and at the request of the
King of Siam, Dr. Knapp sent one of his agents
to take charge of agricultural matters in that
country.
Dr. Knapp was undoubtedly one of the first
men in America to see the principle of the com-
munity movement as it relates to rural districts,
and to make practical application of it, though
he believed that the foundation work must be
26
THE COMMUNITY CENTER MOVEMENT
done with the individual, and that the process
must be slow. In later chapters an outline is
given of the wonderful cooperative work done
through the boys' and girls' clubs, as. initiated
by Dr. Knapp, and conducted by the United
States Department of Agriculture.
If the farmer has his problems from a purely
business standpoint, there are other problems
that touch his family at a vital place. The farm
lacks social opportunities. Someone has said,
* ' When a district ceases to be a mere collection
of householders and rises to the dignity of a
community with common interests and common
aspirations, it becomes alive, and the monotony
of the country life becomes largely a thing of
the past." Many a time a man has given up
farming, not because he did not know how to
till the soil and raise crops, but because his
family demanded opportunities the country did
not afford. The need of the community devel-
opment having become apparent, farmers'
clubs were among the first concrete results of
this realization. The Farm Women's Clubs
followed, and then the Community Club sprang
27
THE LITTLE DEMOCEACY
up here and there. The latter was striMng
nearer the heart of the real need, because it
included in its membership the whole family.
And thus we see that the farmer and the
town dweller, by a long process, step by step,
have come to see a possible solution of many
of their problems through cooperation —
through working together in small units on a
democratic basis, beginning in the home and
taking the gospel of a true democracy through
to the community, the state, the nation and the
world.
Since transportation presents one of the most
vital problems both in city and country life, it
is interesting to note here that Mr. Edgar
Chambless has invented a streetless type of
city building which he calls "Roadtown," and
which many scientists, engineers and sociolo-
gists believe will be the type of the future. It
is obvious that if we can build houses that com-
bine the comfort and convenience of an apart-
ment with the joy and health-giving surround-
ings of a country home, we will go far toward
the solution o^ many problems. "Roadtown"
28
THE COMMUNITY CENTER MOVEMENT
is to be an apartment house built in the country
and capable of indefinite expansion — on the
principle of the sectional bookcase. Mr. Cham-
bless' plan is for a continuous house, with the
avenue of distribution and transportation
within its well lighted and ventilated basement
— built to house forty families, four hundred
or forty thousand, as the demands of the future
may require. At first glance the proposition
seems almost weird, and yet, more than a score
of experts in as many different lines have pro-
nounced the plan perfectly sound and have de-
clared that it embodies a fundamental princi-
ple. Of the plan the inventor says:
**Roadtowns will first be built at the ends of
present city systems of rapid transit lines, and
extend out into the country in many directions.
The superior transportation of Roadtown will
materially increase the area of the suburban
belt; and long before the limit of this belt is
reached, the Roadtown will have become a
semi-agriculture community.
' ' Roadtown will have a population of at least
1,000 to the mile. Assuming that this popula-
29
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
tion will be grouped among the various indus-
tries on the same ratio as the population of the
United States at the last census, we would have
about seventy farmers for each thousand of
population, or each mile of Eoadtown. This
would permit each farmer to have nearly
twenty acres to farm, within a mile distance of
the house line and by going as far as three
miles for crops needing but occasional atten-
tion the Eoadtown farmer could cultivate sixty
acres and yet live in a continuous house with
greater comforts and conveniences than present
city apartment hotel dwellers/'
CHAPTER II
ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY CENTBE
(As Recommended hy the United States Bureau
of Education.y
In the organization of a Community Center
the essential factors to be considered are: its
membership; its size; its executive officer; its
board of directors ; its finances ; and its consti-
tution. The suggestions here offered concern-
ing them, together with the reasons for the
suggestions, are the product of experience, and
have been tested in operation.
The organization of a community around the
schoolhouse as its capital is the creation of
a new political unit, a little democracy. It is
new in the sense that it is the revival and en-
* Adapted from ' ' How to Organize a Community Center, ' ' by
Dr. Henry E. Jackson. Available from Supt. of Public Docu-
ments, Washington, D. C.
31
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
largement of an old institution, that we ought
not willingly to let die. The movement to or-
ganize local self-governing Communities takes
us back not only to the New England Town-
meeting, but still farther back to the Teutonic
''Mark,'* the Eussian "Mir," and to the an-
cient Swiss Cantonal Assembly. The fact that
free village Communities in some form have
existed in so many parts of the world is signifi-
cant indication of a universal conviction that
such organization is a necessity to human wel-
fare.
The Community Center aims to form such a
free village Community, a town, a borough, a
little democracy both in the cities and the open
country. Its capitol and headquarters is the
schoolhouse, because this is the most American
institution and the only one suitable for the
purpose. It alone provides a place where all
can meet on equal terms of self-respect. It is
conveniently distributed in every city, town and
village in America. The term ''Center" ap-
plies to the schoolhouse, the place of meeting.
The term applied to the organization of the
32
ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY CENTER
people themselves is ** Community Associa-
tion/'
The first step in organization is to define
the boundaries of the Community. These ought
to be determined along natural lines, such as
the territory from which the children in the
school are drawn, or a district in which the
people come together for other reasons than
the fact that an artificial line is drawn around
them. It ought not to be too large.
All adult citizens, both men and women, liv-
ing in the prescribed territory of the democ-
racy, are members of it. If the schoolhouse
is to be used as its capitol, the democracy must
be comprehensive. It must be non-partisan,
non-sectarian and non-exclusive. You do not
become a member of a Community Center by
joining. You are a member by virtue of your
citizenship and residence in the district. Every-
where else men and women are divided into
groups and classes on the ground of their per-
sonal taste or occupation. In a Community
Center they meet as **folks" on the ground of
their common citizenship and their common
33
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
human needs. This is the distinguishing mark
of the Community Center.
Members of America. — The Century Diction-
ary quotes the Attorney General of the United
States as saying, "The phrase, *A citizen of
the United States,' without addition or quali-
fication means neither more nor less than a
member of the nation." Membership implies
obligation and responsibility. It is pleasant
to feel that we are one and all ''members of
America"; it gives not only a new sense of
pride, but an intimate feeling of duty to the
common welfare. To make citizenship mean
membership is one of the obvious needs' in
every Community. The outstanding character-
istic of the American Eepublic, which is unlike
any other in the world, is that it is a double
government, a double allegiance. It is a "Ee-
public of Eepublics." Every citizen feels two
loyalties, one to his state and the other to his
nation. In addition to these two, he feels a
third loyalty. It is to his local Community.
And just as every man is a better citizen if he
is first of all devoted to his family, so will he
34
ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY CENTER
be more loyal to the state and nation, if he is
loyal to his own Community.
The Community Center aims to induce citi-
zens to recognize their responsibility for the
administration of public business, to become
active in their own communities, to assist in
the improvement of local schools, of politics, of
roads, of the general health, and of housing
conditions. It is the law of all improvement
that you must start from where you are. If a
man cannot love his own Community, which
he can see, how can he love the whole country,
which he cannot see?
The success of the work in any Community
depends on the amount of public-mindedness
existing there or the possibility of creating it.
Those who undertake Community Center work
ought to guard against the danger of expecting
too much at the start. To develop public-
mindedness is a slow and difficult task. It
ought never to be forgotten that democracy,
like liberty, is not an accomplishment but a
growth, not an act but a process.
This fact should be perceived by pioneers in
35
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
Community Work, in order that they may not
be deceived by the passion for size and num-
bers. A dozen public-minded persons are suf-
ficient for a beginning. One of the biggest
movements in history began with a little circle
of twelve men. They who have discovered the
meaning of democracy do not need large imme-
diate results to keep up their courage; they
only need a cause, and the greatest of all causes
is constructive democracy. The people will re-
spond when they understand. In the entire
history of the Community Center movement,
there has never been a time when they were
so ready to respond. Let no worker in any
Community despise small beginnings.
The Community Secretary. — Nothing runs
itself unless it is running down hill. If Com-
munity work has to be done, somebody has to
do it. The growing realization of this fact has
led to the creation of a new profession. The
term applied to this profession is "Community
Secretary, ' ' a servant of the whole community.
This executive should be elected by ballot in a
public election held in the schoolhouse, and
36
ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY CENTER
should be supported out of public funds. There
were in 1918 four such publicly-elected and
publicly supported Community Secretaries in
Washington, D. C, and eight more such offi-
cials were in the process of being created. It
promises to be one of the most honored and
useful of all public offices. The qualifications
for this office are manifestly large and its du-
ties complex and exacting. The ablest person
to be found is none too able. The function of
the secretary is nothing less than to organize
and to keep organized all the Community activ-
ities herein described; to assist the people to
learn the science and to practice the art of liv-
ing together ; and to show them how they may
put into effective operation the spirit and
method of cooperation. Who is equal to a task
like this ? In addition to intellectual power and
a large store of general information, one must
be equipped with many more qualities equally
important. The seven cardinal virtues of a
Community Secretary are: Patience, unselfish-
ness, a sense of humor, a balanced judgment,
the ability to differ in opinion without differ-
37
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
ing in feeling, respect for the personality of
other people, and faith in the good intentions
of the average man. When one considers the
requirements for this office, one's first impulse
is to do what King Solomon did. After mak-
ing a rarely beautiful description of a wise and
ideal wife, he ended it by asking, ''but where
can such a woman be found?"
Where possible, the Ooanmunity Secretary
ought to be the principal of the school. In
thousands of villages and open-country commu-
nities the teacher's work lasts for only part of
the year and the compensation is shamefully
inadequate. This is a great economic waste as
well as an injury to children. If these teachers
were made community secretaries, were given
an all-year-round job, and were compensated
for the additional work by a living wage, it
would mean a better type of teacher and a bet-
ter type of school. The bigger task would not
only demand the bigger person, but the task
itself would create them. Moreover, when the
teacher's activities become linked up with life
processes, the Community will be the more wiU-
38
ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY CENTER
ing to support the office adequately. It seems
clear that the office of Community Secretary is
the key to the worthier support of the school.
It will magnify the function of teaching, give
a new civic status to the teacher, and make
more apparent the patriotic and constructive
service which the school renders the nation.
Board of Directors. — Since the Community
Center is a cooperative enterprise, it is neces-
sary that it be democratically organized. The
next step in its organization, therefore, should
be to provide the secretary with a cabinet. It
may be called a Board of Directors, or a Com-
munity Council, or an Executive Committee.
Its first function is to give counsel and advice
to the Community Secretary, to form a forum
for discussion, out of which may develop wise
methods of procedure. Its next function is to
share with the Secretary the responsibilities
of the work. In every community there are
men and women who have the ability and lei-
sure to render public service. As directors they
would have a recognized position and a chan-
39
THE LITTLE DEMOCEACY;
nel through which they can render more effec-
tively such a service.
The Board of Directors or Community Coun-
cil should consist of the heads of departments,
so that the entire work of the association may
be frequently reviewed, and so that overlap-
ping and duplication of effort may be avoided.
The directors should meet frequently and the
meetings should be open to the public. The
Community Center stands for visible govern-
ment and daylight diplomacy.
The Trouble Committee. — ^It is not so difficult
to organize a Community Center as it is to
keep it organized. The function of this com-
mittee is not to make trouble, but to remove
it. Its task is to discover the causes of trouble
of various kinds in the community — ^to learn
the causes of dissatisfaction, to state the prob-
lems which ought to be solved, to exhibit the
thing that needs to be done. The work of
the Trouble Committee is problem making.
For example, why are country-bred boys
leaving the farm in such large numbers; is
farming a profitable industry; to what extent
40
ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY CENTER
is the food of the country produced by the un-
paid labor of children; does it pay better to
rent or own a farm; could an average young
man earn enough from a farm to pay for it
by honest labor in a reasonable number of
years; why do half the girls and boys fail to
finish the grammar grades in school; is the
work of transportation and distribution of food
supplies economically done ; why is the cost of
living so high. If a Community Center should
attempt to discover the causes of these unsatis-
factory conditions, it would be a vital and at-
tractive program sufficient to occupy it for sev-
eral years. For the most part, this committee
holds the key to the success or failure of a Com-
munity Center.
Public and Self Support. — The finances of
an organization usually constitute it& storm
center. Money is the kind of thing it is diffi-
cult to get along with and impossible to get
along without. After a Community Center de-
termines its plans and policies the next ques-
tion is finance. Money is properly called
''ways and means." It is not the end; human
41
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
welfare is the end. Money is a detail, and
ought always to be treated as such.
The superior advantage of a Community
Center over private organizations is that it
does not need an amount of money sufficient
to cause it any distress. To begin with there
are no dues. The school-house, together with
heat, light, and janitor service, and in some
places a portion of the secretary's salary, are
provided out of public funds. Thus the over-
head charges are comparatively small. The
time will doubtless come when the entire ex-
pense will be provided out of public funds. The
Community Center needs, for the present, to
supplement its public funds. The highest sal-
ary paid out of public funds to a Community
Secretary in Washington, D. C, is $420 per
year. This is not a salary but a contribution
toward a salary. This amount must be in-
creased if the services of the right type of
person for this position is retained. Other
items of expense to be considered are the sta-
tionery, postage, printing, and clerical work.
These needs should be met by voluntary ef-
42
ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY CENTER
fort, and each department of activity ought to
be self-supporting. These departments should
contribute a certain percentage of their funds
to the association as a whole, because its gen-
eral activities are necessary to the success of
these departments. The members of the Com-
munity Association should express their inter-
est by registering as active members and pay-
ing a small registration fee. These two sources
will doubtless net sufficient funds. If they do
not, then voluntary contributions and enter-
tainments should supply what is needed.
The Community Association is a public body.
As such, what money it raises is public money.
Since the amount needed to be raised by vol-
untary effort is smaller than the amount re-
ceived from public funds, there is little danger
that large givers will have the opportunity to
dominate the policies of the Community Cen-
ter through their gifts. Above all others, this
is the one danger most to be guarded against.
Because it is chiefly supported by public taxa-
tion, the Community Center is a place where
all can meet on the basis of self-respect, where
43
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
a man's standing is determined, not by his gifts
of money, but by character and intelligence.
Whenever this condition ceases to exist the
Community Center dies.
It should be borne in mind, however, that so
long as the finances are organized democratic-
ally, the need for the Community itself to raise
part of its fund is a moral advantage, and is
social justice. The Community Center is an en-
terprise for mutual aid in self -development.
The people are compelled to pay taxes, but
what they freely choose to contribute to their
own enterprise is the only trustworthy guide
to their attitude toward it, and the best evi-
dence of their devotion to it. There can be
self -development only where there is freedom.
Partial voluntary support by a Community in-
sures local autonomy.
''Ten Commandments for a Community
Center." — There are certain formative prin-
ciples which are basic in the structure of a
Community Center. Dr. Henry E. Jackson,
the Government's Community expert, considers
these so essential to the life of the Community
44
ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY CENTER
ideal that he has called them **The Ten Com-
maiidments for a Commimity Center'* and has
stated them as follows:
I. It must guarantee freedom of
thought and freedom in its ex-
pression,
IT. It must aim at unity not uniform-
ity, and accentuate resemblances,
not differences.
III. It must be organized democratic-
ally, with the right to learn by
making mistakes.
IV. It must be free from the domina-
tion of money, giving the right of
way to character and intelligence.
V. It must be non-partisan, non-sec-
tarian and non-exclusive both in
purpose and practice.
VI. Remember that nothing will run it-
self unless it is running down hill.
VII. Remember that to get anywhere, it
is necessary to start from where
you are.
VIII. Remember that the thing to be
done is more important than the
method of doing it.
43
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
IX. Eemember tliat the water in a well
can not be purified by painting
the pump.
X. Eemember that progress is possible
only when there is mental hos-
pitality to new ideas.
The Constitution. — The constitution of a
Community Center is a working agreement, a
clear understanding as to what is to be done
and who is to do it. A clear statement will
prevent needless friction and confusion. As
regards the growth of the work in the Com-
munity the constitution, if rightly constructed,
might well serve as propaganda. In fact, a
good test of the adequacy of a constitution is to
ascertain if it answers this question, *'What is
a Community Center and what is its purpose?"
It will be seen therefore that the constitution
of a Community Association should be very
different from that of an ordinary society,
which merely aims to give information about
officers and meetings. This one may deeply
affect the spiritual and economic life of the
community.
46
ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY CENTER
*' As the expression of certain ideas in a docu-
ment known as Magna Charta was a great
gain in the long fight for freedom in the Eng-
lish speaking world [says Dr. Jackson] so the
expression of a Community's new social pur-
pose may mean new freedom for it. In starting
a Community Center, an organizing committee
should be charged with the task of drafting
and submitting a constitution. If several weeks
were spent on the task, both in committee work
and in public discussion, the time would be well
spent. The educational value of the process
is too great for the people to miss. In the
process a considerable number will be educated
as to the meaning of a Community Center and
will therefore be equipped to a degree for con-
ducting its work.
*'As the word itself suggests, a constitution
establishes the basis on which friends may stand
for the accomplishment 'of their common pur-
poses. Its value is always to be measured by
the importance of the purpose to be accom-
plished. Inasmuch as the purpose of a Com-
munity Center is of the highest value not only
to the welfare of the local community, but also
to the welfare of democracy in the nation and
in the world, the making of its constitution is
a highly important item in its organization.'*
47
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
Suggested Program. — The Council of Na-
tional Defense has suggested a program for
Community Council work which wiU be espe-
cially interesting to those newly organized and
wishing to emphasize work that will directly
bear on helping to win the war. This program
is as follows :
I. Commimiti/ Meetings and Rallies. — The
Community Council, through its executive sec-
retary and committees, should hold frequent
general community meetings, at which —
1. Reports are made by the committees, or-
ganizations, and individuals who are doing war
work.
2. Community war problems are discussed.
n. Patriotic education through —
1. Distribution of educational and patriotic
material to be supplied by the Committee on
Public Information, and assistance in executing
the plans of the Committee for public educa-
tion.
2. Holding community war rallies, addressed
by the ablest speakers available.
3. Distribution of pamphlets and display of
posters.
4. Instruction through the schools.
48
ORGANIZING THE COIVIMUNITY CENTER
III. Reports. — For the purpose of planning
and following up its work and of informing the
country and State authorities as to the re-
sources and work of the community, the Com-
munity Council should tabulate and file the re-
sults of its investigations and of the reports
made to it.
IV. Food.—
1. Assisting the county councils in carrying
out the national agricultural program. Much
of this work can best be done on a cooperative
community basis, through the establishment of
community agricultural conferences, community
labor, seed and implement exchanges, commu-
nity canning centers at school-houses, commu-
nity markets, etc.
2. Assisting the local Food Administrator in
carrying out the national food conservation pro-
gram.
3. Making the community as nearly as possi-
ble self-supporting as to food by (1) studying
last year's food production and food consump-
tion; (2) devising means for providing within
the community the articles necessarily import-
ed during the past year; and (3) education,
eliminating community food waste, and cutting
down community food consumption.
49
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
V. Americanization. — The Community Coun-
cil, especially in industrial communities, in co-
operation with the representatives of the Bu-
reau of Education and the Bureau of Labor,
should endeavor to increase the number of loyal
American citizens by —
1. Educating aliens in English.
2. Lnpressing aliens with the great ideals of
America, American standards, the value of
American citizenship and its duties.
3. Assisting aliens desirous of naturalization
in making out their papers, etc.
VL Commimity Safeguards. — The Commu-
nity Council should undertake the protection
of its own district through —
1. Fire Protection. — Providing proper pro-
tection for crops and goods in storage,
through —
{a) Organization of fire guards and provi-
sion oi. adequate fire apparatus.
(fe) Inspection of all places subject to spon-
taneous combustion, to be sure they are as
nearly fireproof as possible.
2. Protection against violence. The provi-
sion of local guards, if necessary.
3. Belief. — ^Assist the local chapter of the
50
ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY CENTER
American Red Cross in its Home Service Work
for the families of men in national service.
4. Health. — The safeguarding of local health
conditions —
(a) The provision under the leadership of
the Red Cross of emergency nurses to take the
places of nurses who have gone to the front.
(b) Distribution of pamphlets and other
literature from State and National Health De-
partments.
5. Work for School Children. — The assist-
ance of the school children in carrying out the
work of the Community Councils should be in-
trusted to the Junior Red Cross. This is the
organization for patriotic expression for the
school children of the country, indorsed by the
National Education Association. Its work
covers many of the fields indicated above.
Under the direction of their teachers as officers
of the Junior Red Cross, children are to enroll
for service wherever their work makes for edu-
cation and better citizenship.
VU. Labor and Industry. —
1. Educating boys so that they may be effi-
cient in helping on the farms in the summer.
2. Urging vigorous prosecution of the State
51
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
vagrancy law in each community and campaign-
ing against idleness.
3. Informing the proper authorities as to the
need for enforcement of labor legislation for
the protection of woman and child workers and
maintaining conditions of employment.
VIII. Commtmity Thrift. — ^In addition to
urging economy in food consumption, Commu-
nity Councils should —
1. In cities, in compliance with the requests
of the Commercial Economy Board of the Coun-
cil of National Defense, discourage needless re-
tail deliveries.
2. Cooperate with the local Fuel Administra-
tor in the conservation of fuel, especially
through urging and teaching its economical use.
3. Assist in relieving railroad congestion
by-
(a) Issuing and distributing cooperative
community orders for goods.
(b) Cooperating with local receivers and
shippers of freight to arrange for full carload
shipments of goods and prompt unloading of
cars.
(c) Providing adequate storage facilities.
(d) Urging merchants to purchase in the
nearest market.
52
ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY CENTER
4. Encouraging conservation of other sup-
plies.
IX. Community Subscriptions. — The Com-
munity Council should provide an efficient
means for soliciting subscriptions to —
1. Liberty Loans and War Savings Stamps.
2. The Red Cross, Y. M. C. A., and other or-
ganizations indorsed by the State Council.
Efforts should be made to prevent solicita-
tion in the community by any organization not
approved by the State Council.
X. Soldiers^ Aid Work. —
1. Each community should make sure that all
drafted, enlisted, or commissioned men from
that community receive frequent mail, maga-
zines, etc., from home.
2. Assistance should be provided to the local
exemption boards in their arduous work.
3. In the neighborhood of training camps
the community can render valuable service by
providing recreation and entertainment for the
men in the camps, in cooperation with the local
representative of the War and Navy Depart-
ments' Commission on Training Camp Activi-
ties.
4. The Community Council should assist the
Red Cross in providing the greatest possible
53
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
number of hospital supplies, sweaters, socks,
and comfort kits, etc., for the soldiers.
5. In cooperation with the Red Cross, each
community should provide adequate business,
legal, and medical advice and aid to soldiers
and their families.
XI. Coordmation. — The Community Council
should consider itself a coordinating agency
and a clearing house for the war work of the
churches, fraternal societies, clubs, and other
organizations and of the individuals of the
community. There should be no duplication or
replacement of the work of existing organiza-
tions, but the effort should be to make this
work run smoothly and efficiently. In each ac-
tivity the directors of the Community Council
should study the situation to determine whether
some existing agency is already doing satisfac-
tory work in that field. Where such agency
exists, it is the duty of the Community Council
to strengthen and work through it, not to re-
place it.
XII. Execution of the Various Requests Is-
sued by the National Government and hy State
and County Councils and Branches of the Wom-
an's Division. — Priority should be given by the
Community Council to all work expressly re-
54
ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY CENTER
quested by the National Govemment, National,
State, or County Councils, or Branches of the
Woman's Committee in order that a uniform
national response may be quickly obtained. The
keynote of efficient decentralization is prompt-
ness and accuracy by the local agents in carry-
ing out the requests from a central source.
Since the State Divisions of the Woman's
Committee have already departmentalized their
work along lines generally parallel to those
suggested in this program, an effort should be
made, in those communities where the work of
the Woman's Committee is organized in small
communities, to combine the two programs or
departments of work to prevent duplication and
too much reorganization of existing commit-
tees.
CHAPTER III
A MODEL CONSTITUTION
The following constitution may be said to be
a model one, since it was adopted by a highly
successful Community Center in Washington,
D. C. This constitution was prepared by Dr.
Henry E. Jackson to meet the needs of this
community, and it was adopted, not hastily, but
after patient discussion in committee and
thorough thrashing out in public meeting. It
is now in operation.
''Each community ought to draft its own con-
stitution [says Dr. Jackson] not only because
the needs of Communities vary, and because it
should be the honest expression of the Com-
munity's own thought and purpose, but espe-
cially because a constitution brought from out-
side and dropped on the people's heads has lit-
tle value for the Community. Of course it is
possible for a Community to work over and as-
56
A MODEL CONSTITUTION
similate the constitution of another Community
until it becomes its own. It should also get help
and suggestions from as many constitutions as
it can find."
The constitution of the Wilson Normal Com-
munity Association, of Washington, D. C,
which may well be studied as a model because
it has been in successful operation for some
time, follows:
PEEAMBLE
We, the people of the Wilson Normal Com-
munity of the City of Washington, D. C, in
order to secure the advantages of organized
self-help, to make public opinion more enlight-
ened and effective, to promote the education of
adults and youths for citizenship in a democ-
racy, to organize the use of the public school
as the community capitol, to foster a neighbor-
hood spirit through which the community may
become a more efficient social unit, to prevent
needless waste through the duplication of so-
cial activities, to engage in cooperative enter-
prises for our moral and material welfare, and
to create a social order more in harmony with
57
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
the conscience and intelligence of the Nation,
do ordain and establish this constitution.
Abticlb I
Name
The name of this organization shall be the
Wilson Normal Community Association and its
headquarters the Wilson Normal School build-
ing.
Aeticub II
Location
The Community shall be defined as follows:
Beginning at 14th and W Streets, thence north
on the east side of 14th Street to Monroe Street,
thence east on the east side of Monroe Street
and Park Eoad to Georgia Avenue, thence south
on the west side of Georgia Avenue to Irving
Street, thence east on the south side of Irving
Street to Soldiers' Home, thence south on west
side of Soldiers' Home, McMillan Park and
Reservoir to College Street, thence west on
north side of College Street and Barry Place to
10th Street, thence south on the west side of
10th Street to W Street, thence west on the
north side of W Street to 14th Street, the place
of beginning.
58
A MODEL CONSTITUTION
Aeticle III
Members
The members of the association shall be all
the white adult citizens of this community, both
men and women. A limited number of non-resi-
dent members may be received into member-
ship provided they are not registered members
of any other organized community. Organiza-
tions now in operation, which are non-partisan,
non-sectarian, and whose aim is the public wel-
fare, such as '^ Citizen Associations," ''Home
and School Leagues," ''Women's Clubs,"
"College Settlements," "Housekeepers' Alh-
ances, ' ' desiring to retain their name and iden-
tity for the sake of cooperation with other
branches of similar organizations, may become
departments of this association. There shall be
no suggestion of superiority or inferiority
among the departments. The members of each
department shall have the same standing as all
other members.
Aeticle IV
Officers
The association shall elect by ballot from its
own members a Board of Directors, or Com-
59
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
munity Council, which shall be both a legisla-
tive-and an executive body. It shall consist of
not less than six nor more than fifteen mem-
bers. They shall be elected for a period of
three years, excepting for the first year, when
one-third of the number shall be elected for one
year, one-third for two years, and one-third
for three years.
The chairman of the committee in charge of
each department of the association shall be a
member of the Board of Directors. A chair-
man may be appointed by the Board, or select-
ed by the department itself and confirmed by
the Board. Chairmen shall have the right to
select the members of their committees.
The community secretary, whose public elec-
tion is provided for by the Board of Educa-
tion, shall be a member of the Board of Direc-
tors and a member ex-officio of all committees.
It shall be his duty to exercise general super-
vision over all the activities of the association,
and to nominate by and with the consent of the
directors, all assistant secretaries. They shall
have the right to attend all meetings of the
Board and take part in the discussions, but shall
have no vote.
As soon after the annual election as conve-
60
A MODEL CONSTITUTION
nient the directors shall meet to organize and
shall elect from their own number a president,
vice-president, and a secretary-treasurer, who
shall perform the duties usually performed by
such officers.
Article V
Departments
The Board of Directors is authorized to or-
ganize and operate departments of activity,
such as forum, civics, recreation, home and
school league buying club, and community bank,
whose activities shall be supervised and whose
accounts shall be audited by the Board of Di-
rectors.
1. Forum Department: The committee in
charge of this department shall arrange for
public meetings, at such times as the associa-
tion may decide, for the free and orderly dis-
cussion of all questions which concern the so-
cial, moral, political, and economic welfare of
the community. It shall select a presiding offi-
cer for such meetings, secure speakers, suggest
subjects, and formulate the method of conduct-
ing discussions.
2. Recreation Department: The committee
in charge of this department shall provide and
61
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACT
conduct games, dances, community dramas, mu-
sicales, motion pictures, and shall promote all
similar play activities with a view to increasing
the joy, health, and good fellowship among both
adults and youths.
3. Civics Department: The committee in
charge of this department shall provide the
members with the means of securing informa-
tion concerning politics, local, national, and in-
ternational ; it shall stimulate a more intelligent
interest in government by the use of publicity
pamphlets; it shall suggest ways in which the
members may contribute to the economic and
efficient administration of the city's affairs; it
shall provide courses of studies for young men
and women as a preparation for citizenship and
devise methods of organizing the youth into
voluntary, cooperative and constructive forms
of patriotic service.
4. The Home and School Department: The
Committee in charge of this department shall
seek to promote closer cooperation between the
school and home, the teachers and parents; it
shall aim to improve the school equipment, to
secure more adequate support and better hous-
ing conditions for teachers; it shall organize
and conduct study classes for youths and
62
A MODEL CONSTITUTION
adults; it shall provide such ways and means
or remove such obstacles as may be necessary
to enable all children to remain in school until
they have finished the grammar grades,
whether these obstacles be the kind of studies
now pursued in school, the home conditions of
the children, or the economic conditions of the
community.
5. Buying Club Department : The committee
in charge of this department shall organize,
and operate in the school a delivery station for
food products with a view of decreasing the
cost of living; it shall establish a direct rela-
tion between the producer and consumer in
order to eliminate wastes ; it shall seek to safe-
guard the people's health by furnishing the
purest food obtainable; it shall aim to moral-
ize trade by giving full weight and measure
and substituting public service for private ex-
ploitation ; it shall eliminate debt by asking for
no credit and giving none; it shall practice
economy and equity in order to secure a larger
return to the producer and decrease the cost to
the consumer.
An annual fee shall be required of all mem-
bers of the Buying Club, payable quarterly in
advance to defray operating expenses, the
63
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
amount of the fee to be determined by the com-
mittee, and it shall be decreased or increased
as the number of members and volume of busi-
ness warrant. All members shall secure their
goods at the net wholesale cost price.
Goods shall be sold only to members of the
Buying Club. Membership in the Buying Club
is open only to members of the association and
only to those members who are depositors in
the community bank.
The Buying Club shall set aside annually a
sum equal to two per centum of the amount of
its sales, to be used by the association for the
purpose of educating its members in the prin-
ciple and practice of cooperation, until public
appropriations are sufficient to provide the
means for such education.
The club shall set aside annually a sum equal
to one per centum of the amount of its sales as
a reserve fund to cover unexpected losses.
The committee in charge of the Buying Club
shall serve without compensation, but may em-
ploy one or more executives to conduct the busi-
ness of the club, who shall receive compensa-
tion for their services, the amount of which
shall be fixed by the committee, but the amount
64
A MODEL CONSTITUTION
shall be determined, as far as possible, on a
percentage basis according to service rendered.
All checks, drafts, or notes made in the name
of the club shall be countersigned by the chair-
man of the directing committee. The executive
in charge of the buying club shall be required
to give a surety bond.
6. Community Bank Department : The com-
mittee in charge of this department shall or-
ganize and conduct a credit union bank for
members of the association in order to capi-
talize honesty and to democratize credit, and
to multiply the efficiency of their savings by
pooling them for cooperative use. It shall be
known as the '^ Community Bank." It shall
receive savings deposits both from children and
adults and shall make loans. It shall, if pos-
sible, be a part of the curriculum of the school,
at least as regards deposits of children. The
committee in charge shall serve without com-
pensation, but may employ one executive to
conduct its business who shall be required to
furnish a surety bond.
The bank shall make loans only to individual
members of the association and to the Buying
Club for productive purposes, but no loan shall
be made to any member of the committee in
65
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
charge of the bank. Deposits may be received
from those other than members.
The bank shall issue no capital stock, but
shall charge entrance fees, which shall be used
as a reserve fund and returned to depositors
when they withdraw from membership.
The bank may make small short-time loans
secured only by the character and industry of
the borrower. It may make long-time loans,
secured by mortgage, character and industry,
to young men and women for the purpose of
helping them to secure houses in which to start
homes, and the payment of such loans may be
made on the amortization plan.
The rate of interest charged for all loans
shall be five per centum. The amount of inter-
est allowed on deposits shall be the net profit
after operating expenses are paid. The bank
shall use no other bank as a clearing house
which is not under the supervision of the United
States Government. All loans shall be made
by check and all such checks shall be counter-
signed by the chairman of the directing com-
mittee.
An amount equal to one-half of one per
centum of its deposits shall be set aside as a
reserve fund. An amount equal to ten per
66
A MODEL CONSTITUTION
centum of its deposits shall be invested in Fed-
eral Farm Loan Bonds, Liberty Bonds, or in
other Federal, State, or Municipal Bonds.
The Community Bank shall be operated not
on the principle of unlimited, joint, and several
liability of its members, but it shall have the
right to demand pro rata payments from them
to meet any loss through unpaid loans, pro-
vided the reserve fund is not sufficient, to cover
such losses.
Article VI
Cooperation
There shall be no dues for membership in the
community association, the dues having already
been paid through public taxation, but the as-
sociation, by voluntary subscription and in
other ways, may raise funds to inaugurate or
support its work, if the amount received from
public appropriation is insufficient to meet its
needs.
The association may unite with other simi-
lar associations in the District of Columbia to
form a community league, in order to conduct
a central forum or cooperate with each other
for any other purpose which may serve their
common welfare.
67
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACYi
The association adopts the policy of cordial
cooperation with the Board of Education, and
provides that a designated member of the
School Board may be a member, ex-officio, of
its Board of Directors. He may attend any of
its meetings, take part in the discussions, and
vote on all questions.
Aeticle VII
Meetings
The Board of Directors shall hold monthly
meetings at such times as they may determine.
All regular monthly meetings! of the Board
shall be open meetings. When a vacancy oc-
curs through death or otherwise, the Board
may fill the vacancy until the next annual meet-
ing. If any director shall be absent from three
successive stated meetings without excuse, such
absence shall be deemed a resignation.
Quarterly meetings of the Association shall
be held on the second Tuesday of January,
April, July, and October. The April quarterly
meeting shall be the annual meeting to elect
officers, hear reports from all departments, and
to transact such other business as may be nec-
essary.
68
A MODEL CONSTITUTION
This constitution may be amended at any an-
nual meeting, or at any quarterly meeting if
previous notice of the proposed amendment is
given. In all elections the preferential ballot
may be used with reference both to officers and
measures ; the initiative, referendum and recall
may be employed in such manner as the As-
sociation itself may determine.
CHAPTEE IV
THE COMMUNITY FORUM, THE NEIGHBORHOOD
CLUB, AND THE HOME AND SCHOOL LEAGUE
(As Suggested by Dr. Henry E. Jackson, Gov-
ernment Expert in Commimity Work)
After a Community Center has been organ-
ized and placed on a sound working basis, op-
portunities for constructive work along many
lines will present themselves in limitless array.
It would not be wise to suggest any limited plan
for activities for such an organization, as new
conditions will develop new problems and the
Community Center must be left free to handle
situations as they arise. The Community move-
ment, old as it is, is but now entering on its
golden age and no one should attempt to con-
fine it within any given boundaries. However,
there are certain activities that are so essential
to a normal development that it has been
70
THE COMMUNITY FORUM
thought practical to include in this book an.
outline of the plan upon which they have been
successfully conducted in various places. The
outline which follows is that suggested and
tried out with great success by Dr. Henry E.
Jackson, the Government's expert in Commu-
nity work, in his comprehensive bulletin on
''What Is a Community Center?"
The Community Forum. — Inasmuch as the
the right to vote on public policies is now in
the hands of the average man (and of many
women), it is of paramount importance that
they should be given the opportunity to make
themselves fit to perform this function intelli-
gently. This is the necessity on which the
community forum fundamentally rests. It is
a school for citizenship. The community forum
is the meeting of citizens in their school-house
for the courteous and orderly discussion of all
questions which concern their common welfare.
A Community may begin with questions in
which local interest is manifest, such as good
roads, or public health or the method of rais-
ing and spending public funds, or methods of
71
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
production and transportation of food prod-
ucts. A discussion of these questions will at
once reveal the fact that they transcend local
limits. A road is built to go somewhere, and
it will relate one community to another. Local
health conditions can not be maintained with-
out considering ^ther localities, for the cause
of local disease frequently lies elsewhere. A
local community pays part of the revenue raised
by the county. Therefore, the expenditure of
these funds is the affair of the local community.
The same is true of the administration of state
funds. The question of production and trans-
portation is no longer regarded as a rural
problem or a city problem, but a national prob-
lem. The reason why no community should live
for itself is that none exists by itself. Every
community is at the center of several concen-
tric circles. The subjects of most value for dis-
cussion in a local forum are those which con-
nect it with county, state, and national inter-
ests. And herein lies the educational value of
the forum.
Ours is a government by public opinion. It
72
THE COMMUNITY FORUM
is obvious that the public welfare requires that
public opinion be informed and educated. The
forum is an instrument fitted to meet the most
urgent public need. It is organized not on the
basis of agreement, but of difference. It aims
not at uniformity, but unity. It would be a
stupid and unprogressive world if all were
forced to think alike. We are under no obliga-
tion to agree with each other, but as neighbors
and as "members of America," it is our moral
and patriotic duty to make the attempt to un-
derstand each other.
Public discussion renders a great variety of
services to spiritual and social progress. It
puts a premium on intelligence, liberates a com-
munity from useless customs, puts a check on
hasty action, secures united approval for meas-
ures proposed, creates the spirit of tolerance,
promotes cooperation, and, best of all, and
hardest of all, it equips citizens with the ability
to differ in opinion without differing in feeling.
This habit can be acquired only through prac-
tice. The forum furnishes the means for mu-
73
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
tual understanding. It aims to create public-
mindedness.
The Neighborhood Club. — The basic assump-
tion of the Community Center movement is that
democracy is the organization of society on the
basis of friendship. "Man," said Aristotle,
''is a political animal." He requires the com-
panionship of his fellows. His happiness is
largely linked up with their approval. His
instinctive need for fellowship leads him to
create a sort of social center out of anjrthing
available for the purpose. The Post Office has
served as such a village center, but the free
delivery of mail is destroying its social uses.
The corner store has acquired fame as an in-
formal forum and neighborly club, but the mail
order house is rapidly robbing it of members
and at the best it serves only a few. The saloon
has served the purpose of a neighborhood club
and friendly meeting place on equal terms for
large numbers of men, but moral and economic
considerations have doomed it to extinction.
The Post Office, corner store, and saloon are
passing as social centers, but they must be
74
THE NEIGHBORHOOD CLUB
replaced with something better if they are not
to be replaced with something worse. The Pub-
lic School therefore stands before an open door
of opportunity to become a neighborhood club,
where the people can meet on terms which pre-
serve their self-respect. Almost every indi-
vidual lives in the center of several concentric
circles. There is the little inner circle of his
intellectual and spiritual comrades; then the
large circle of his friends ; beyond that the still
larger circle of those with whom the business
of life brings him into contact ; and the largest
circle of all includes all members of the com-
munity as fellow citizens. There need be no
conflict among these circles, no suggestion of
inferiority or superiority. It is never to be
forgotten that these circles are concentric. The
experiences of life make them natural and nec-
essary.
The Community Center is limited only by this
last and largest circle. It seeks to broaden
the basis of unity among men, to multiply their
points of contact, to consider those interests
which all have in common. It is not difficult
75
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
to discover that these are bigger, both in num-
ber and importance, than the things which sepa-
rate men. The list of things, which can only
be achieved as joint enterprises, is long. Eoads
can only be built by community cooperation.
Only in this way can the health of the com-
munity be safeguarded. Food, clothing and
shelter are the common needs of all. Produc-
tion and transportation are therefore questions
of social service. The Greek word for "pri-
vate," peculiar to myself, unrelated to the in-
terests of others, is our word for ''idiot." The
corresponding modern term in our common
speech is ''crank." The Community Center is
a sure cure for ' ' cranks. ' ' It aims to promote
public-mindedness.
The schoolhouse used as a neighborhood club,
therefore, renders an invaluable public serv-
ice. It seeks to create the neighborly spirit nec-
essary for concerted action. The means em-
ployed are various — games, folk dances,
dramas, chorus singing, which requires the sub-
ordination of self to cooperative effort, dinner
parties, where the people break bread in cele-
76
THE NEIGHBORHOOD CLUB
bration of their communion with each other as
neighbors. These activities not only render a
service to the individual by promoting his hap-
piness and decreasing his loneliness; but they
discover in the community unsuspected abili-
ties and unused resources. To set them to work
not only develops the individual but enriches
the community life.
The same is true of the spirit of play in gen-
eral; to cultivate the spirit of play not only
meets an instinctive human need for physical
and mental recreation, but renders a distinctive
service to democracy, on account of its spirit-
ual value. One can carry on the work of de-
struction by himself but he must organize in
order to produce. He must cooperate in order
to play. He can not monopolize the victory, he
must share it with the team. Play thus de-
velops the spirit of sportsmanship, the willing-
ness to play fair, the capacity to be a good
loser. Cooperation and the spirit of sports-
manship are indispensable qualities for citizens
of a democracy.
77
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
The Home and School League. — The free
public school is at once the product and the
safeguard of democracy. The kind of public
school therefore, which a community has is
an accurate index of its community conscious-
ness and its estimate of democratic ideals.
*'The average farmer and rural teacher," says
T. J. Coates, ''thinks of the rural school as a
little equipment where a little teacher, at a
little salary, for a little while, teaches little
children little things." The object of the Home
and School Department of the Community Cen-
ter is to substitute the word ''big" for the word
"little" in the above statement, to magnify
the work and function of the school, to make it
worthy to occupy a larger place in the people's
thought and aifection. This is the work which
Home and School Leagues are now doing. The
Community Center in no wise interferes with
their work. It is not a rival but an ally. Its
plan is to give to and not to take from the Home
and School League. Indeed it is probable that
the Home and School League quite generally
may become the parent organization out of
78
THE HOME AND SCHOOL LEAGUE
which will be bom the Community Center. This
happens naturally and logically, and in many
places it is the process of development now in
operation. When a Home and School League
e(xpands itself into a Community Center, it
should become a department of the Community
Organization.
By becoming a department of a larger organ-
ization and limiting itself to its own special
task, the Home and School League will not
only do its work better, but it will find it more
than sufficient to occupy all its time. Its spe-
cific work is to promote the progress of the
school and to improve the school equipment.
To this end, it seeks to secure closer coopera-
tion between the home and school, the parents
and teachers. When Madame de Stael asked
Napoleon what was needed to improve the edu-
cational system of France, he replied: "Better
Mothers." The noblest influence on any child
is that of a good mother. Every school there-
fore ought to strive to keep a close bond be-
tween the home and itself. It ought to do so,
not only for the sake of the children, while they
79
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
are in school, but also before they come to
school and after they leave it. To build batr
tlements around girls and boys at the point of
their greatest danger, during the period be-
tween sixteen and twenty-one when they are
most neglected, is a task worthy in itself to
enlist the deepest interest and occupy the en-
tire energy of the Home and School League.
The three unsettled questions which school-
masters are always debating — ^the content of
the curriculum, the method of teaching, and the
business management — ^will be illuminated, if
there is brought to bear upon them the view
point of parents, who own and support the
schools and who are interested to get the proper
return on their investment. The same will be
true of all school questions, if considered from
the standpoint of the Community Center. It
will connect school activities with life processes.
This means vitality for the school. For, as the
great educational reformer, G-rundtvig, said,
''Any school that has its beginning in the al-
phabet and its ending only in book learning is
a school of death."
80
THE HOME AND SCHOOL LEAGUE
Inasmuch as the key to a better school is a
better teacher, the Home and School Depart-
ment of the Community Center should endeavor
to secure for teachers not only a larger degree
of moral support, but more adequate financial
support, which is not the only thing needful,
but which is the first thing needful towards the
attainment of this goal. The constructive serv-
ice rendered to the public by public school
teachers is as important, if not more important,
than the service rendered by any class of pub-
lic servants; and they are not mercenary or
lacking in heroic devotion to the common wel-
fare. But it is idle to expect that the right type
of teacher can be secured or retained without a
decent living wage. When a Community offers
such a wage, then and then only will it be able
to secure the right type of person for the posi-
tion. In order to retain them after they are
secured there ought to be a school manse, a
teacher's house, as part of the necessary equip-
ment of every school.
Proper support and housing in order to se-
cure the right type of teacher, in itself, consti-
81
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
tutes a worthy program for this department.
The Home and School Department will natu-
rally have charge of such extension activities as
evening classes for youths and adults. These
classes should be designed not only as a part
of the work in the Americanization of immi-
grants but for the better equipment of all citi-
zens. This states in brief the function of the
Home and School Department. The nation's
destiny was decided at the beginuing by the es-
tablishment, for the first time in the modern
world, of a free public school system. To keep
vital its processes, and to improve its equip-
ment, that it may be still more valuable to the
people, is the chief business of this department.
CHAPTER V
COMMUNITY BUYING AND BANKING
(As Suggested hy Dr. Henry E. Jackson, Gov-
ernment Expert in Comrmmity Work.)
Theee is nothing new or startling in the idea
of cooperative buying. England had, at the
beginning of the war, 4,000 successful ''Co-
operative Societies" which handle an annual
business exceeding $600,000,000, and the experi-
ments that have been made so far in this coun-
try have been based somewhat on England's
experience. These societies buy supplies of all
kinds, including food and clothing, and the plan
under which they operate is a demonstrated
success. It is an interesting fact that similar
societies operating in this country have not
succeeded, and while the plan of the English
organizations is well worthy of consideration,
it has been necessary to adapt this plan tO'
83
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
American ideas and methods. Americans are
too rich and too individualistic thus far, and
they have not learned sufficiently the lesson of
true cooperation. The Buying Club as it has
heen established in America is not a shop, in the
English sense, where goods are weighed and
bandied and stored, but a store in the original
American sense — a store house, a distribution
station where goods are kept in their original
<}ontainers.
As an evidence that the Buying Club is not
an invention or an inspiration of the present
day the following item published in a paper of
Washington, D. C, of February 5, 1868, is of
interest :
'^The matter of cooperative stores is now
occupying considerable attention in Washing-
ton, and various enterprises of the sort have
Ijeen started or are in embryo. The follow-
ing embodying the most successful plan now in
operation in England, will be of interest to
those connected with similar institutions here.
It is a store established in London, called the
Commercial and General Society. The quality
of the goods it retails is first rate, its managers
84
COMMUNITY BUYING AND BANKING
having no personal interest in selling inferior
or unduly cheap goods, and it freely accepts
any customers who may present themselves on
a subscription of five shillings a year. Its
pricebook also offers a useful guide for those
who do not wish to be cheated in their house-
keeping. It delivers its goods free, and to fa-
cilitate the payment of goods before delivery
its members are allowed to open deposit ac-
counts at the store in sums of not less than
five pounds. These deposit accounts are deb-
ited with the amount of each order and can
be balanced at any time and any surplus with-
drawn on application to the management.
There is no risk in such an undertaking, for
the custom of the subscribers is certain, and it
is now accurately known what percentage must
be charged for waste, attendants and other nec-
essary expenses. Goods are purchased at
wholesale and sold to subscribers at cost, ex-
penses and a small margin of profit, which, at
the end of the year, is redivided among the as-
sociates in proportion to their purchases."
The leading features of this plan as outlined
are embodied in the modem Buying Clubs of
to-day; but there is this difference — ^the club is
85
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
an activity of an organization whose members
liave been educated in cooperation, which, as
one expert has expressed it, is a state of mind.
Experience has seemed to teach that, in Amer-
ica at least. Buying Clubs formed for business
reasons alone, and operated independently, are
rarely successful ; that their greatest usefulness
will come from their being linked up with other
cooperative enterprises. However, since co-
operative buying and banking have been oper-
ated with notable success in England, Denmark
and other countries there is little doubt that,
as parts of our "Little Democracies" in Amer-
ica today they can not fail of success.
It has been said that three things are neces-
sary to success in any practical cooperative en-
terprise. These are, a desire to save, good
business sense, and the spirit of cooperation.
Of these by far the greatest is cooperation. It
is significant that the cooperative societies of
England not only gave the name ''society" to
their organization, but also devote two and a
half per cent of their annual profits to the
86
COMMUNITY BUYING AND BANKING
education of their members in the principle and
practice of cooperation. Thus there have grown
up in these stores real centers of social activi-
ties. In America we are going at it in the
reverse way — ^we are starting our cooperative
enterprises in our social centers, though the
principle involved is the same.
To acquire the spirit and method of coopera-
tion requires a slow process of education.
**The chief danger to be guarded against
[says Dr. Jackson] is the common tendency on
the part of Americans to demand the fruit the
day the tree is planted. While the spirit of
cooperation is difficult to acquire, like all other
good things, it is worth all it costs. Coopera-
tion in buying and banking is in itself the best
means for moral culture. Its educational value
is of the highest. It minimizes the evil of debt,
cultivates self-control and self-reliance, checks
reckless expenditure, develops a sense of re-
sponsibility, quickens intelligence and public
spirit, and prepares citizens for self-govern-
ment. The sehoolhouse is not only the place to
acquire these educational values and coopera-
tive virtues, but it also furnishes the inspiration
87
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
for success in the process, because the Ameri-
can public school is itself the most successful
social enterprise yet undertaken in this or any
other nation.*'
A Successful Experiment. — ^A very successful
experiment in cooperative buying has been
made in Washington City, in connection with
a well organized Community Center. An ex-
perienced buying agent is employed who re-
ceives a commission on all goods handled. The
most commonly used articles were selected for
the initial trial — butter, eggs, coffee, etc. Per-
ishable goods were generally avoided. During
the Christmas season the buying agent ar-
ranged with a producer to supply seventy-five
turkeys. The producer received slightly more
than he would have received wholesale and the
consumer paid 36 cents a pound, whereas the
market price was 45 cents. Very interesting
also was the experiment in buying eggs, which
were then selling in Washington at 85 cents a
dozen. Producers were getting 50 cents a dozen
wholesale ; the Community Buyer paid 55 cents,
allowing five per cent for handling; an addi-
88
COMMUNITY BUYING AND BANKING
tional five per cent was added to this for ex-
penses by the Buying Club, and then consumers
got their eggs for 60 cents a dozen, thereby sav-
ing 25 cents a dozen, and the producer got 5
cents more than he would have received at
wholesale. This plan is cooperative in all that
the word implies as it benefits the producer as
Well as the consumer. When a certain article
is to be bought, letters are sent out to members
informing them of this fact, so that they may
take advantage of it if they wish to do so.
Linking Town and Country Communities. —
A practical and far-reaching plan was put in
operation by this same Community Associa-
tion which seeks to definitely link the rural
community with a community in the city. In
a neighborhood fifteen miles from the city the
community was organized to supply the needs
of the certain community in the city, and thus
two neighborhoods cooperated to the mutual
advantage of all. It is necessary always to get
for the producer prices that are a little better
than he gets at wholesale and to deliver goods
to the consumer at a lower price than he can get
89
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
them through the ordinary channels. The
Buyer should see to it that only the best goods
are bought, and therefore buying through the
club insures standard quality. This particular
Community Association decided upon a label
for all goods purchased through the Commu-
nity Buying Club, and it is expected that this
label will come to be the trademark of first-
class goods at moderate prices. Every effort
is made to standardize all goods handled.
An Experiment in Milk. — ^A very interesting
experiment has been made in the purchase and
distribution of milk. The plan followed was
agreeable not only to the consumer and to the
producer but to the dealer as well. Consumers
got their milk 3.13 cents per quart cheaper than
they were getting it. There were sixty-five
licensed milk dealers in the city where this
experiment was tried, all traversing the same
territory, all making out monthly bills and
doing book-keeping, all losing a certain per-
centage on unpaid bills, etc. About twenty of
them were delivering milk in the territory in-
cluded in the Community Center. After the
90
COMMUNITY BUYING AND BANKING
plan for cooperative buying was put in opera-
tion there was but one dairyman delivering and
milk was left from door to door like mail.
It is advisable before starting cooperative
milk buying to get orders for three hundred
and twenty quarts, or eighty gallons, a day.
This is a full day's work for one man and one
team. Milk should be paid for in advance by
the ticket system, at least a week's supply
being sold to each customer. ''Joining" the
Cooperative Milk Buying Club consists in hand-
ing in one's name to the buying agents, who
should be on duty each day from 9 to 9.30 A. M.,
and from 3 to 4 P. M., and purchasing a
week's tickets. Thereafter tickets may be had
from the agent or from the delivery man. The
milk furnished must, of course, be standard in
quality. All consumers are urged to take at
least one quart a day. It requires as much la-
bor to fill, clean, and deliver a pint bottle as it
does one holding a quart.
Members of Community Buying Clubs are
asked to adopt three reforms ; First, to get milk
from one source through the Buying Club so
91
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
that it can be delivered like mail from door to
door; second, pay cash in advance for at least a
week's supply of tickets; fhird, replace the bot-
tles that are broken. The unavoidable losses
connected with the sale and distribution of milk
are, duplication of routes, bookkeeping, unpaid
bills, night delivery, broken bottles, and pur-
chase of small amounts. Three of these losses
alone, based on estimate of ten distributors, cost
the consumer 3.13 cents a quart. The amount
saved depends on the number of reforms adopt-
ed and the number of people who adopt them.
"Whatever the amount may be it belongs to the
consumer. The amount saved, however, should
be shared with the producer; otherwise the
question threatens to be not how to get milk
at reasonable prices but how to get milk at
all. In cases where consumers can not use a
quart of milk a day arrangements may be made
for four deliveries a week. It is quite im-
portant to note that the dairyman who has the
largest number of customers gets the order for
the unit of three hundred and twenty custom-
ers. Such an experiment as this may be tried
92
COMMUNITY BUYING AND BANKING
in any community. However, the successful
experiments of which the author has been able
to leam are those operated in connection with
a well-organized Community Center. Let it be
remembered that a Cooperative Buying Club
unattached to the means of creating the co-
operative spirit is almost sure to fail.
The Community Bank. — A very interesting
development of Community Center work is the
Community Bank, which not only meets the
practical need, but cultivates an ethical view
of money and uses it as a means of moral cul-
ture. A Community Bank is primarily the
savings bank both for children and adults. As
regards children it ought, so far as possible,
to be a part of the curriculum of the school.
Such banks are now conducted in many schools
for children. Cooperative banks are conducted
for adults in some states under the name of
credit-unions. New York State has a good
law on credit-unions, on which the laws of other
states have been modeled.
But a real Comimunity Bank is designed to
serve other purposes than those of saving. Its
93
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
aim is to multiply the efficiency of the people ^s
savings by pooling them for cooperative uses.
Its aim is to capitalize character and to democ-
ratize credit. It serves a community use by
enabling the people to do jointly what they can
not do separately. By clubbing their resources,
they can use their own money for their own
productive purposes.
Such a bank, operated for the common wel-
fare, will not only furnish the working capital
for community enterprises, but will also be a
loan society. It will make small short time
loans to its members on reasonable terms. It
will thus become the salvation of the poor from
the tyranny and degradation of the loan-shark.
It will also make large long-time loans to young
men and women, who desire to marry and start
homes, in order to enable them to become the
owners of houses. It will permit them to re-
pay the loan on the amortization plan. No
community could render a more statesman-like
service to its members. The service already
rendered by Building and Loan Associations,
which are in fact cooperative banks, is a guar-
94
COMMUNITY BUYING AND BANKING
antee of the success of the plan. There are
7,034 such associations with a membership of
3,568,342 and assets amounting to $1,696,707,-
041. These figures are eloquent and tell a sig-
nificant story. They show how ready is the re-
sponse of men to the opportunity of owning
their own houses and that this opportunity
needs to be vastly extended. The motto of the
United States League of these associations is
* * The American Home, the Safeguard of Ameri-
can Liberties. ' ' The motto is both sentimental
and accurately true. The well-being of a na-
tion depends primarily upon the existence of
conditions under which family life may be pro-
moted and fostered. The family is the true
social unit, older than church or state and more
important than either. The welfare of family
life is every statesman's chief concern.
The Community Bank enters not only a vital-
ly important, but a practically unoccupied field,
and will meet felt needs unmet at present. The
cooperative handling of credit is not new. It
has been done in Europe for fifty years with
marked success. The Conununity Bank is the
95
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
adaptation to American conditions of the Raif-
feisen Bank of Germany, the Lnzzatti Bank of
Italy and the Government Bank of New Zea-
land. It is a democratic bank, that is, it is of
the people in that it receives the people's
money ; it is hy the people, in that it is operated
by the people themselves; it is for the people,
in that the money is used for the welfare of
the people who saved it.
A Community Bank's ability to render these
needed public services depends wholly on the
people's desire and capacity to save and their
willingness to pool their savings. To cultivate
the habit of thrift is the first necessity. That
America needs to acquire this habit is too obvi-
ous to need comment. Americans are the least
provident of peoples. Compared with a list of
fourteen other nations, the number of people
out of every thousand who have savings ac-
counts is only about one-sixth as many in Amer-
ica as in the nation highest on this list and
less than one-half as many as in the nation low-
est on the list. Switzerland stands highest with
554. Denmark is next with 442. The lowest
96
COMMUNITY BUYING AND BANKING
is Italy with 220. But in America it is only 99.
The economic welfare of a Community, how-
ever, is not the most important result which
the habit of thrift produces. Since money is
the commonest representative of value and a
symbol of the property sense, it is the best
practical means of moral culture. A Com-
munity Bank will furnish the best antidote for
the common desire to get something for noth-
ing, ''the determination of the ownership of
property by appeal to chance," the habit of
gambling, which is distorting the moral sense
of all classes of people.
The Community Bank is designed to promote
an ethical view of money. When we consider
that if a man earns a hundred dollars for a
month's labor, he has put into this money his
physical force, his nervous energy, his brain
power, that part of his life has been given away
in return for it, then money becomes a sacred
thing. When we consider the humiliation and
suffering of a destitute old age entailed by a
lack of economy, then the need of thrift as-
sumes a new significance. When one considers
97
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
how manifold are the bearings of money on the
lives of men and how many are the virtues with
which money is mixed up, honesty, justice, gen-
erosity, frugahty, forethought and self-sacri-
fice, an ethical view of it is unescapable.
A small competency is necessary to make life
what it ought to be for every man, especially
in a democracy. "Whoever has sixpence,"
said Carlyle, '4s sovereign over all to the ex-
tent of that sixpence, commands cooks to feed
him, philosophers to teach him. Kings to mount
guard over him, to the extent of that sixpence. ' '
An assured competence, however small, gives
the priceless blessing of independence. Not
only personal health and happiness, but social
and political independence are involved in a
man's saving fund. The kind and amount of
service which a Community Bank can render to
democratic ideals is beyond calculation.
CHAPTER VI
THE COMMUNITY GAEDEN
{Plcm Recommended by Prof. Hugh Fmdlay,
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Formerly
of Syracuse University.)
Reports of gardens conducted in the first
year of the War in response to appeals from
the Government that every community feed it-
self are almost unbelievable. The Vacant Lot
and Yard Improvement Association of Newark,
N. J., raised food valued at $114,000. There
was organized effort that brought this amazing
result. The Muncie Garden Association, of
Muncie, Indiana, placed 450 gardens under culti-
vation which produced food valued at $30,000.
The value of food produced in the six Com-
munity and City Gardens of Syracuse, N. Y.,
was estimated at $50,000. In these places ex-
perts were employed and the entire project was
99
THE LITTLE DEMOCEACY
handled on a business basis. Ten policemen at
Pueblo, Colorado, raised food valued at $1,000
by working in spare moments. The children of
the Delaware County Children's Home in In-
diana formed an association and raised among
other things, eighty bushels of onions; 25
bushels of navy beans ; 800 bushels of com ; put
up 38 gallons of sauerkraut and canned 4,000
quarts of preserved food and jellies, in addition
to fattening fourteen hogs for winter use.
In this book it is proposed only to deal with
organization and to suggest the best method of
setting up the machinery necessary for the suc-
cessful conduct of a Community Garden. No
such project should be undertaken until those
directing it have secured from the Department
of Agriculture at Washington, or its state rep-
resentatives the best information available on
the preparation and cultivation of the soil,
preventive measures against plant disease, etc.
The Department issues a great many valuable
bulletins, which will be sent free upon request.
A wealth of material is also available through
The National Food Garden Commission, Mary-
100
THE COMMUNITY GARDEN
land Building, Washington, D. C. The plant-
ing charts issued from this oflSce are especially
commended to every gardener.
The Directing Organization. — Any group of
people in any community, large or small, may
organize for Community Garden Work. The
most successful gardens are those inaugurated
and operated under the auspices of some wom-
an's club or organization, whose efforts are
supported, financially and otherwise, by Farm
Bureaus, State Agricultural Colleges, or other
established centers of agricultural knowledge
and experience. To launch the project proper-
ly and with most promise of success some cap-
ital is required, the amount depending on the
size of the community and the number of gar-
dens and gardeners. In one to^\^l where a
highly successful Community Garden is oper-
ated, the work was started on a fund of $1,200
cheerfully subscribed by firms and individuals.
There is no danger of the Community Garden
idea being unpopular. There are no arguments
against it and many for it.
Employ a Supervisor. — Having secured a
101
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
directing organization or having organized a
Garden Club, enlisted the cooperation of the
authorized agricultural agencies of the state
and secured a fund with which to start, the
next step is to employ a practical gardener
as supervisor. It is best to select a man who
knows the soil as well as the people of the
section in which he is to work; but unless one
is available in whom the people have fullest
confidence, it is better to seek, through the
state Agricultural agencies, a man of experi-
ence, scientific knowledge and executive ability
whom they can recommend. All past experi-
ence teaches that it is best to pay the Super-
visor a salary that will justify him in concen-
trating his interest and in giving his entire
time to the work. He should have a telephone,
and if possible, an automobile should be placed
at his disposal. With an automobile it is pos-
sible for the Supervisor to visit from ten to
one hundred gardens each day.
Little difficulty will be found in getting
ground. No firm or individual having an idle
tract of land will deny the use of it to the Com-
102
THE COMMUNITY GARDEN
munity Gardeners, and all public and private
vacant land is asked for. It will be found ad-
visable to divide the town or city into six sec-
tions in order that demonstrations may be held,
lectures given, questions answered, etc., at least
one day a week in each section.
Having secured a fund, headquarters, super-
visor, and the ground, and having divided the
community into sections for convenience of
operation, the organization is ready to begin
actual work.
Arouse Public Interest. — The success of the
enterprise is dependent in no small degree
upon the general public interest it arouses,
and the first duty of those in charge is to enlist
the active and enthusiastic support of the news-
papers, banks, real estate dealers, and business
firms, as well as leading citizens. In every
town where the Community Garden has been
successful a newspaper, bank or other public
institution, or some public spirited individual,
has offered prizes for the best gardens. One
patriotic citizen in a small city gave $1,000 in
prizes which was shared in by about 130 per-
103
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
sons. It is said that this gift resulted in at
least $50,000 crop yield. The winner in this
contest was Mrs. Eachel E. Salisbury, 74 years
of age. In her written statement she said she
respaded all the soil in her 136x80 foot garden
after plowing and picked out by hand fourteen
bushels of quack grass roots. In doing this she
lifted more than 109 tons of soil and it was
all done before June 1. Every school should
be visited and interest of the children should
be aroused early. ' ' War Garden Guards ' ' have
been organized with fine results among the so-
called ''bad boys" of the city. They should
be distinguished from ordinary individuals by
attractive buttons which they invariably wear
with pride. Where "War Garden Guards"
have been organized there has been a notable
absence of stealing, rock throwing, etc.
The Model Garden. — A model garden, cen-
trally located, should be started early. This
should be operated and worked by members of
the directing organization and should be used
for demonstrations if other gardeners care to
watch its progress from time to time. The
104
THE COMMUNITY GARDEN
plowing and the seed should be furnished by
the organization and charged to operating ex-
penses and the products should be given to the
poor or to the families of enlisted men.
Duties of Supervisor. — The first actual work
of the Supervisor is to examine and analyze
the soil of the prospective gardens. This may
best be done through the Farm Bureau of the
State Agricultural College where facilities and
expert advice are available. The soil analysis
enables the Supervisor to give practical advice
to gardeners as to fertilizer, etc., and means
that the maximum of results may be obtained if
instructions are faithfully followed.
A man should be hired to do the plowing,
$6 to $8 a day being the average price paid
for this work. Helpers may be used as needed,
grown people receiving thirty cents and chil-
dren fifteen cents an hour. When the plow-
ing is completed, the lots should be staked off,
and it is advisable to have committees from
the respective sections to oversee this part of
the work. Lots 50 by 100 feet are advised, with
paths two feet wide.
105
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
When this stage of the preparation has been
reached, the gardeners are notified that the
ground is ready. The cost of plowing is
divided by the number of lots and each person
taking a lot is charged his or her share of the
cost. After various experiments, it has not
been found advisable to give free seed to the
gardeners. Often those who are not able to buy
seed are timid about asking for it and get none.
The Supervisor should have ready lists of seeds
desirable, advice as to varieties, etc., and should
be always willing to answer questions. It is
important to have a tool-house erected on each
of the six Community Gardens, where tools can
be kept and where notices of demonstratipns,
meetings, etc., and weather forecasts can be
posted. This bulletin-board will be found a
great convenience both to the directors and to
the gardeners. The cost of the tool-house
should be borne by the League and the amount
collected later from the gardeners, who are
asked to assume their share of the cost. A
few simple but good tools are advised.
The Foreign Gardener. — Professor Hugh L.
106
THE COMMUNITY GARDEN
Findlay, for a number of years Professor of
Horticulture at Syracuse University, and later
of the United States Department of Agricul-
ture, is considered an authority on the manage-
ment of Community Gardens. As Supervisor
and Director of the strikingly successful gar-
dens at Syracuse, N. Y., Professor Findlay
worked out some practical ideas in a field that
was almost untried. His advice is worth fol-
lowing. Where there is a large foreign element
among the population Professor Findlay
strongly advises allowing the gardeners to
farm in their own way. In fact, while he ad-
vocates a definite and business like organiza-
tion, accurate records, etc., he opposes a policy
of dictation. ''People have their own ideas —
maybe they have started planting or laying off
their groundl before the movement is under
way. I never find it wise to discourage them
by finding fault with what they have done. It
is better to say, 'Have you ever tried this wajV
and gently lead the gardener to a more suc-
cessful way.'^ In one of his Community Gar-
dens in Syracuse Professor Findlay had 193
107
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
Poles cooperating most happily and with great
success. The Commandant in charge of the
garden was the Priest to whom the people had
been accustomed to look for guidance and in
whom they had full confidence. Following the
system of their native land these Polish gar-
deners, in staking off their ground, provided
for no walks, as they had been taught that
every inch of ground must be utilized.
Early Start Important. — Nothing contrib-
utes more definitely to the success of the Com-
munity Garden than an early start in every
line of activity. While the gardeners are de-
ciding what to plant, getting their seed and pre-
paring their ground, members of the organiza-
tion directing the work should have no idle
moments. Prizes are to be arranged, for
grown-ups and for children, and announcements
of these should be made early. Interest gen-
erated in the early days of the work must be
kept up to the high water mark. Talks must
be made in the schools, as well as in all places
where numbers of people gather.
Public Demonstration. — ^If the Community
108
THE COMMUNITY GARDEN
Gardeners are fortunate enough to live within
easy reach of an Agricultural College it will
be found very stimulating and instructive to
have demonstrations conducted by the experts
of the faculty. Members of the directing or-
ganization should see to it that automobiles
are furnished so that many may be enabled to
attend who could not do so otherwise. It is
well to have the first of these demonstrations
as early in the season as possible in order that
the gardeners may gain helpful information
regarding their preliminary plans.
As the work progresses, the Supervisor will
find that he is busy every moment. He should
neglect no call, for such neglect is sure to be
felt in the community from which the call has
come. As the season advances and the gar-
dens grow, the people who work together day
after day get well acquainted and the garden
is the one topic of interest and conversation.
A bit of information spreads rapidly and all
take advantage of a timely suggestion or a
warning from headquarters. The regular vis-
its, demonstrations and inspection tours of the
109
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
Supervisor grow more and more important.
The best hour for demonstrations is between
seven and nine o'clock in the evening, as the
majority of the gardeners work at that time.
No small part of the duties of the Supervisor
consists in diagnosing cases of sickness among
the plants and prescribing the remedy. An
even greater service, however, is in giving ad-
vice as to preventive measures, ^nd in teach-
ing the gardeners how to look for early symp-
toms of disease and how to treat the plants
promptly and effectively.
Practical Record Cards. — From the very be-
ginning, accurate and complete records of
every day's work should be kept. The Super-
visor should make a complete monthly report
of his activities to the organization directing
the work as well as to the agricultural agen-
cies cooperating. This report should include:
(1) telephone calls, (2) demonstrations, (3)
visits to gardens, (4) record of problems
solved, (5) record of problems unsolved, (6)
record of best articles found in local papers,
(7) expenses, with receipts, for all expendi-
110
THE COMMUNITY GARDEN
tures. In addition to this report the Super-
visor should keep an accurate record of the
separate gardens. While the Supervisor should
be responsible for this record, the information
should come direct from the gardener. The
record should contain the name of the man who
gave the use of the land, the man who plowed
it, the gardener; kind of soil, crops, and gen-
eral results.
The record cards arranged by Professor
Findlay which were used successfully in a num-
ber of Community Gardens will be found on
pages 112 and 113.
Plcm of Garden Commission. — The National
Food Garden Commission suggests the follow-
ing as a plan of organization for the Commu-
nity Garden; after the appointment of a Gar-
den Committee by the Mayor:
1. That the committee through its proper
agents secure land in or around the city limits,
or close enough to be within working reach of
the citizens of the city not otherwise engaged
in agriculture.
2. These lands are to be classified in sub-
Ill
6
Z
1
1
I
■
B
1
1
1
1
s
H
o
0}
°
Q
1
1
""" 1
(fl
s
J3
1
^
a
2
e
1
s
3
d
o
en
t^
o
8
S
0.
K
o
s
t
o
u
1
os;
(5
o
u
D
w
1
c^
z
w
Q
ca,
<
O
■
a
w
O
o
<
9}
ci
•O
>
CO
1
]^
i
o
Pi
o
c
ontribu
ddress.
i
1
o
2
o
1
Wt '^
^
. <s
J '^
O
(2 £
112
(X]
X
2
oi
§
OS
<
II I I I I I
o
■
o
I
w
&
s
d
■
d
c
«
c
3
K
U
M
d
z
2 '
<
K
■>
Z
O '
z
o
H
!: )
o
5 ; S «* ^ »: *
i I i % I I t I
113
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
divisions : (a) Of residents who are not able to
work them, (b) Single lots not occupied by
residents, (c) Larger plots of land; all prop-
erly classified as to acreage on sub-division
plots.
3. Secure all available barnyard manure or
other local material for fertilizing these lands,
and have it put on the plowed lands at once.
4. Ascertain as early as possible what com-
mercial fertilizers will be needed in addition
to the other fertilizers, to insure maximum
crops in all cases, and order this conamercial
fertilizer early. Shipping facilities are in such
condition that this fertilizer must be ordered
early to insure delivery in time for spring use.
5. The committee will find out as rapidly
as possible who will work gardens and assign
them land according to the circumstances and
conditions.
6. Definite contracts should be made, bind-
ing the land owner, as well as the worker, so
as to avoid confusion and disappointment.
7. Every lot or garden should be numbered
114
THE COMMUNITY GARDEN
and careful record be kept of the name and
address of the owner and the worker.
8. A seed supply should be investigated at
once, and immediate steps taken to secure and
distribute them. Supplies of necessary imple-
ments also should be investigated and secured,
without delay.
9. Appropriate committees should be
brought into service, and definite divisions of
the city assigned to each member, so as to in-
sure against neglect or duplication of effort.
10. There should be a central office kept
open for carrying on this work, and one field
manager should be appointed to have entire
supervision of this office and the field workers ;
but of course acting under the general direc-
tions of the executive committee.
Go to a bank and tell them your plans, li
you pick out an institution that is alive it will
put up a half dozen prizes of $5 each in the way
of savings account and it will turn over the
facilities of its real-estate department to set
aside available land for the planting. This will
be one of the best thrift advertisements the
115
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
bank can possibly spend money on. Then go i6
your newspapers and tell them what is doing.
Keep them informed all the time on every step
of progress made. They want the stories but
do not make them come after them. In other
words, organize this community work on a
business basis and go into it with the same
system that you would put into operation if
you were opening a store.
About Awarding Prises. — The point basis
was used successfully in prize contests in many
of the Community Gardens last year. Under
the system which was generally adopted, thirty
points were allowed for general appearance;
twenty points for absence of weeds; and ten
points for each of the following: number of
vegetables, straightness of rows, labels of va-
rieties and dates of planting, and general rec-
ord of garden operations. The following rules
were observed:
1. All labor required to produce the crops
in these contests must be performed by the
contestants, with the exception of the plowing
116
THE COMMUNITY GARDEN
and harrowing. Suggestions from parents or
guardians are encouraged.
2. There must be a record of seed planted,
date of germination, and date of harvesting,
also the amount and kind of vegetables taken
from each garden.
3. A record of insects found and what has
been done to control them must be kept.
4. Kecords of plants that die, and cause
attributed.
5. All statements and records must be
signed by the contestants and two disinterested
persons appointed by the Garden Committee.
6. All contestants must exhibit not less than
five varieties of vegetables with the exception
of potatoes.
7. The lots will be measured by the Garden
Committee and investigated frequently
throughout the season. The records kept on
individual blanks will also be recorded so that
at the end of the season a correct estimate of
the care and appearance of the garden may be
made.
117
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
MM^ SI UZ'^Ba
a fl 3 h; 3 hS'O'bh; g
^d^ 1^ II 1^
s2
-r 60 ©a
^
•IS -3 ^
c
(M«3 ji .H<N
::^:j: ::;: :s^ i?^:^: ^ :s
W
O
I— (
Ph
.90^
•S.9 •S'" .S
(Mi-l <N ^
O O o"^ O
C0r-(lO roiO --ItH i-HCD >-(
,_i,_irt CC-H (NN IM.-I (M 1-1
eOT)< Tj4 i~( OOrHi-l
a a
d
d a
d a
a
ci
d d
d
d d
•*■*
4; 00
00
to-*
0
<o
000
■u
0
O'*
(M(N
coco
COM
CO
CO
CO 1-1
CO
CON
0 0
0
op
0 0
0
0
Of3
0 0
00
S06
T-itoi-i --Kin
a a p » n R
3 3 3 g 3 9
o o o p o o
■ <6 a <u • ■ 0)
ao o o 3 1. o
3-^
3.0 .£1 B 9 ^
« 9
So. ^
>3Xi
Q«d.G8 030) S3»J- --
<<<!« pQpq P30 00 O
■S >"
.2 o
UU U H H»M
118
THE COMMUNITY GARDEN
0 ^
a t
b -g
« >>-
0^ *^— -
ss
>2 0.3
>,S <Bja as a tjja
cs (U—^ o ^ CO a o
C v
.3 .So
.9;:.g ;--.a
.2.3-
o o5
BUS
S Q o
.3 o
o o
1-100
OOtJ<00
00';
.3.3
■*oo*;
oo«
.3.3 .3.3.3.3
£0000 00-<t»O>il<
■* o o 0000
>*j ♦» 4^ .tj -tj ^
00
MO''
000
*^ ■♦* *s
OOOON
.-Heoeo i-crtr-i
000
c o U
a fl ^
5^
§3N§
® 2 fl
§§§
7 o a
»\^^ c^ 1-H f-H »i^^»-< f-i Lo cH ^e
iS^I
0 . .
-O fl
goo
000
i< C a a
cS c3 V «
•XI J3
^ 01 03
•3 3 3
09 U3^
. 0) «
^S3 ^^Sa-a a
■""".3 """.a .3 .3
»i*j <
-K-Kc
.«>) O O
-K^i-! w^ ^N
3J fi
.3 .3.3 • .3.3.3
o oo<D«j ■««!Tt<ao £ "**
^ f-i
O 3 3 O O
O o
.0 s
ffiOQCQ
119
o •
•- fl ® 9
■O".
9-3
03.^
fl fl -a
-a " 0) 2 a
"•3 o!3 ti
•" i •^— -^
2 o o 2 o
g M-g fl*^
Mn-3 o a
«* O OrS
-o " « " 3
.S-OTS-tt o
■gOOcD fl
o.£££;2
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
8. If weeds are found choldng the vege-
tables, the contestant is notified. On the sec-
ond inspection, if the garden is in the same
condition and no good explanation can be made,
the contestant is dropped from the contest.
A very important feature and one that
should be given special attention is the final
exhibition by all competitors for the prizes.
Tables for planting, recommended by the Na-
tional Emergency Food Garden Commission,
are found on pages 118 and 119.
CHAPTER Vn
THE COMMUNITY MAEKET
(Plan Recommended by the U. S. Bureau of
Markets.)
The object of the community market is tvro-
f old : to provide a quick and sure market for the
producer for perishable goods at a reasonable
profit, and to give consumers who will pay cash
for their goods and carry them home a dollar's
worth of actual products for a dollar. The
elimination of the middleman is not intended.
The middleman has a distinct function to per-
form in the working out of the sane economic
scheme of things. Sometimes there are too
many middlemen, in which case the superfluous
ones will be automatically eliminated if the
plan of operation is a sound one. If the plan
is not a sound one it will fail.
The question of public markets is not a sim-
121
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
pie one. The United States Government has
considered it of sufficient importance to war-
rant the establishment of a Department of
Markets under the Department of Agriculture.
Previous to 1913 all of the emphasis had been
placed on production, with the result that the
problem of distribution began to loom large.
Farmers found that the net profit from a small
crop was greater than that from a large crop
that could not be marketed, to advantage. A
similar condition developed after the great
food production drive of 1917 and to meet this
condition the Bureau of Markets was given an
additional appropriation for emergency meas-
ures.
Scarcely had this country become involved
in the world war before American women rec-
ognized that the question of cheaper and niore
efficient methods of distributing and marketing
food products, particularly fresh farm prod-
uce, was to be a leading one. Up to the time
these women began to consider the question of
markets, things had been going rather slowly.
The Bureau of Markets in 1915 sent out a ques-
122
THE COMMUNITY MARKET
tionnaire to 585 cities of 10,000 inhabitants or
over, and of this number only 189 had munic-
ipal markets of any kind. ''We can not deny
that club women and groups of women gener-
ally have done much constructive agitating,'*
said an oflScial of the Bureau of Markets. The
fact is, successful community or retail public
markets have been set going all over the coun-
try which will become flourishing municipal in-
stitutions. In the first year of the war Penn-
sylvania had twenty-one such markets and New
Jersey nineteen — for all of which the women
were directly responsible. The problem of se-
curing good products more cheaply, thus mak-
ing an appreciable reduction in the average
budget which the housewife must set aside for
food, has always proved a baffling one to every
agency concerned in the quest. Through the
personal efforts of the women and their intelli-
gent and enthusiastic ''agitation," cities, in an
attempt to aid their population in the war pro-
gram, are awaking to the fact that they have
been very lax in assuming proper obligations
in relation to their food supply.
123
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
Study Your Field First. — Every locality does
not need an established municipal market.
Those who are truly interested in serving their
country should ascertain a few general facts:
Has the town or city a municipal or farmer's
open market? If so, is it conducted according
to the most approved methods, and are results
satisfactory to producer and consumer? If not,
is there need of a market of any type in the
community! Inasmuch as the usefulness of a
market depends on the support given it by the
consumers, the tributary producers, and the
local dealers, it is well worth while, before
expending time and money on the project, to
determine the attitude of these people toward
it. In meetings called for the purpose or
through the press, it is possible to ascertain
the general sentiment. The Bureau of Markets
advises that if all are apathetic and there is
no definitely expressed desire for a market,
then a city's energies might be turned more
profitably to other lines of improvement. How-
ever, the women have not always adhered to
that policy. Apathy and general lack of inter-
124
THE COMMUNITY MARKET
est have not deterred them, and in many cities
they have educated, agitated and demonstrated
until all elements have been entirely converted.
Before any sort of a market project is under-
taken or planned the best thing to do is to con-
sult the Bureau of Markets, Department of
Agriculture, at Washington. The Government
established it for this purpose and the surveys
it has made, the plans it has developed, the
successes and the failures it can cite will prove
vastly interesting and valuable. The director
in charge of the project of the Bureau known
as ''Distribution and City Markets" is always
ready to extend the helping hand. It is also
well to bear in mind that every state has its
Agricultural College, its Farm Bureaus or oth-
er authorized agencies fitted to deal with such
matters and the interest and the active cooper-
ation of all such agencies should be immediately
sought.
The City Market. — No set of rules or general
plan can be suggested that will apply with equal
success to city and small town community mar-
kets, as the problems of each class of city and
125
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
even of each locality are different and must be
studied individually. City women contemplat-
ing undertaking a community market would do
well, after consulting the Bureau of Markets,
to communicate with those who have estab-
lished markets in other cities. One of the most
interesting of these is that opened under the
auspices of the Woman's City Club of Chicago
at 90th Street in the South Chicago neighbor-
hood. From the first the market encountered
opposition of various kinds from the local mar-
ket men, from politicians, and from commis-
sion men. Despite this great handicap the mar-
ket is successful and is in continuous opera-
tion. The people of the neighborhood had
wanted a market for a long time. They are
interested in the work and like it, and though it
was established primarily for the families of
men employed in the steel works and rolling
mills in South Chicago, it has proved attractive
to patrons from neighboring districts. No one
who is not an actual producer is allowed to sell
in the market, and these people find it profit-
able as they often sell three or four loads daily.
126
THE COMMUNITY MARKET
The rapidity with which the products are sold
acts as a safeguard against unsanitary condi-
tions. The women connected with the enter-
prise and who are interested in its success be-
lieve that they have made an opening wedge
by which women may enter into a trade par-
ticularly adapted to their capabilities and
where their experience will be of special serv-
ice to the public. Chicago women are even dis-
cussing the feasibility of developing and using
waterways throughout the middle west for the
purpose of extending this market service. It
is confidently asserted that waste has been
checked in a great degree in Chicago house-
holds, but that waste does occur on the journey
from the producer to the consumer is a fact not
to be disputed. Details of the plan which has
been followed with so much success in Chicago
can be had from headquarters of the organiza-
tion at 120 West Adams Street, Chicago, 111.
How One City Organized. — Strikingly suc-
cessful also has been the community market
estabhshed by the women of Atlantic City. Sev-
eral women toured by motor through several
127
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
counties of New Jersey and ascertained that
tlie farmers of that section had increased their
production fifty per cent in answer to the war
emergency call of the Government. Eeturning
to the city these women called a meeting at
which a representative of the State Agricul-
tural Department was asked to speak. The
speaker said he had long had in mind a com-
munity market but that he had been unable to
secure a location. The women immediately
asked if he would secure the cooperation of the
farmers provided they could secure the loca-
tion. The gentleman expressed some doubt.
He said the problem was a serious one; the
enterprise had never been carried out success-
fully, and the farmers were very skeptical of
such a market. But the women did not intend
to fall back before the armies of General
Apathy or even General Opposition. They se-
cured the permission of the City Commissioner
to hold the first meeting, as an experiment, on
a vacant lot. Twenty-three farmers came the
first day, twenty-eight the second and thirty
the third. ''By this time," said Mrs. John J.
128
THE COMMUNITY MARKET
White, who was largely instrumental in estab-
lishing the market, **the hucksters and the re-
tail dealers became alarmed and brought so
much pressure to bear on the City Authorities
that we were declared a 'public nuisance' and
ordered to leave."
This pronounced opposition only showed the
women the success of their venture and encour-
aged them to go on. Seeing the success of the
enterprise a public spirited citizen offered the
use of a splendid lot well located, and within
a day or two the market was moved to this
new location. As the City could not be induced
to give money for a shed, a patriotic and pub-
lic spirited woman came to the rescue and pro-
vided funds, and a shed 100 feet long* was
hastily built. After the first day this shed had
to be enlarged to 150 feet in ^length, and from
that time until after Thanksgiving day about
forty farmers were represented three times a
week. The hours were from 5 :30 to 9 :30 A. M.
When cold weather forced the farmers and
their patrons indoors a garage was offered and
the market moved into winter quarters. The
129
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
sales from the market in six weeks amounted
to over $19,000 and a conservative estimate
placed the saving to the consumer at more than
$5,000. A nominal price was charged to the
farmer for the privilege each day, this amount
going to cover the slight overhead expense. A
member of the State Agricultural force was
furnished and was on hand each day to regu-
late prices and see that honest baskets were
sold. The prices were always a little more than
the farmer would have received from commis-
sion men and less than the retail price to the
consumer, so both were pleased.
Practical Plans for Small Cities. — It is said
by experts that certain types of population
lend themselves more readily to the municipal
market idea than others. Cities having a large
foreign element and a well developed middle
class usually give most loyal support to such
a project. Those who live in cities of from
25,000 to 50,000 inhabitants should immediately
consider the question of a municipal market.
For all smaller places the open market will be
found advisable for a beginning. It can be
130
THE COMMUNITY MARKET
started with little expense of time and money;
it can be moved easily, provided the first loca-
tion is found to be faulty; it can be used as a
means to determine the degree of support
which would be given to a larger project by
producer and consumer. The open markets
have served to promote interest and enthusiasm
in a community for this form of more direct
dealing. With a curb or a vacant lot costing
nothing as a site, and with a few farmers who
are willing to sell in this manner, there is every-
thing to gain and very little risk in making the
experiment. Having secured the use of a va-
cant, centrally located lot, those interested
should immediately set about to enlist the in-
terest of the producers, either directly or
through the Farm Bureaus or Agricultural De-
partment of the State.
Examples of Successful Markets. — A very
practical plan was followed with success by the
women of Worcester, Mass. This plan was
later expanded and developed. A complete sur-
vey of all the women's organizations was made
early in the spring and women were asked to
131
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
give, as far as they could at that time, an esti-
mate of the kind and quantity of vegetables
they would need during the summer and com-
ing fall. Farmers, through the Agricultural
agencies, were then urged to produce accord-
ingly. The community markets at Worcester
and at Gardner, Mass., are called Farmer's
Exchanges. Here the farmers bring their prod-
ucts on two days in the week and the house-
wives may buy fresh fruits and vegetables at
nominal prices. A striking example of a suc-
cessful community market is found in Indiana,
where it was developed out of classes in demon-
strating canning and preserving. In Indian-
apolis between three and four hundred women
came each week to these classes, and the at-
tendance throughout the state was correspond-
ingly large. Mrs. Carl Gr. Fisher, Chairman
of the Committee on Food Conservation for
the state, opened a market for the disposal of
surplus food prepared at these demonstrations.
Farmers and other producers were invited to
bring their surplus and the success of the ven-
ture was amazing. On the first day the entire
132
THE COMMUNITY MARKET
stock on hand was sold for $4.75. Just one
month and ten days later the sales in one day
amounted to $960.00, and the activities of the
enterprise have steadily increased. Rhode Is-
land tried an interesting experiment at a time
when the peach crop was unusually heavy and
farmers could not sell at a profit. The House-
wives League started a campaign among the
women to buy peaches direct from the pro-
ducers, and canning peaches became quite fash-
ionable.
While it is not possible to give a working
plan that is adaptable to all communities, the
examples given will prove that the community
market is a practical and a permanent out-
growth of the work of women during the first
year of war ; and anyone interested may gather
from the cases given, or from the sources men-
tioned, what information they may desire in
order to begin the experiment in their own com-
munity.
An Expert's View. — On the subject of retail
public markets, Mr. G. V. Branch, Investigator
133
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
in City Marketing, Office of Markets and Rural
Organization, says :
''There are some very difficult problems to
work out in the successful establishment of
even such an old-fashioned and apparently sim-
ple institution as a public market. Although
a century ago the task was simple, the present
complexity of the marketing system and the
extraordinary demands in the way of service
which are evidenced on all sides, have greatly
increased the difficulty of suiting an old-time
project of this kind to more modem life. The
attempt is met with disappointing results in a
great many cases, due, however, to no fault of
the principle itself. Public retail markets — old,
dilapidated, mismanaged, and filthy — are nu-
merous. Well equipped, sanitary markets, of
modem construction, efficiently conducted, are
scarce. Being usually left to run themselves
they have done so, quite naturally selecting the
path of least resistance, which, unfortunately,
is down grade. Given a fair start and contin-
ued good business management, a municipal
retail public market should be a success in any
average city that is large enough to support
such a project.
134
THE COMMUNITY MARKET
'* There are many who condemn a market
unless, from the beginning, it affords lower
prices. While this is a result that can reason-
ably be expected in well-directed institutions,
nevertheless, plenty of time must be given for
the balancing of the many factors that enter in-
to price establishment. When a market is once
firmly on its feet it would seem that a city could
legitimately ask from it the following service:
it should give to patrons who will pay cash for
their purchases and carry them home a dollar's
worth of actual products for a dollar. In other
words, when a buyer does not demand or use
credit and delivery service he should not be
charged for it. Municipal markets should also
reflect to the consumer the saving which is made
possible to the dealer through low rent for his
stall and equipment, as well as any other reduc-
tions in overhead expense. Patrons should be
able to find at a market a larger and fresher
assortment of food products than the average
private establishment offers. Due to the possi-
bility of closer official inspection, the consumer
has a right to look for increased protection in
the matters of quality, weight, and measure.
"When once a city has committed itself to
a municipal market system, it is immediately
135
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
confronted with innumerable problems. So lit-
tle information is available on the subject that
it usually must become a matter of experimen-
tation. A serious mistake is often made at this
point. Instead of having a competent engineer
or architect carefully study the problem and
report, it is usually the custom to send a dele-
gation of city officials on a junketing tour, some
of whom may incidentally observe the munic-
ipal markets of the places visited. This would
not be so detrimental if only the cities inspected
were possessed of even semimodel marketing
institutions. More often they are of a mediocre
type, and are far from fit to serve as patterns
when the possibilities of a modem municipal
retail market are considered."
The '' Farmers' Lvne." — The success of a
public market often depends upon the size and
character of its "farmers' line." There seems
to be an innate desire on the part of housewives
to buy from the producer and in the open. Con-
sequently it behooves a city to study the tribu-
tary rural population. If a good truck growing
section is already developed within driving dis-
tance, there should be no trouble about lack of
136
THE COMMUNITY MARKET
supplies for the market, unless the growers
produce their crops in such large quantities
tiiat they are forced to sell at wholesale. If
there is little truck growing in the region, how-
ever, methods of encouraging the farmers to
take up that work should be employed.
Type of Market. — The form of market most
in favor is a combination of an inclosed build-
ing, for the sale of meat, fish, butter and other
products that should be protected, and an open
space where the market wagons of farmers and
hucksters can be accommodated. The street
curb adjacent to the market hall is often used
for the latter purpose, but as a rule a location
inside of the property line is better. This open
section should be equipped with sheds, if possi-
ble, for the protection of both buyer and seller.
An enclosed market building with no provision
for producers' or hucksters' wagons usually
finds favor only in the larger cities, where open
space is not available.
Location of Market. — If there is one consid-
eration more important than another when the
possibilities of success of a public market are
137
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
being weighed, that one is location. Many a
city has invested a goodly sum in a retail mar-
ket only to find that they had foredoomed it to
failure by selecting an out-of-the-way place. In
judging the accessibility of a market site two
factors are of prime importance: the numl)er
of patrons who will walk to the market, and
the transportation facilities. A market with
a large tributary population within walking dis-
tance may save hundreds of dollars a day to
these buyers in car fares. On the other hand,
the patron from a distance should be able to
ride very near the market entrance with as few
transfers as possible. In selecting a retail-
market location, the demands of the future
should always be kept in mind. Provisions for
expansion of the market plan as the city grows
have been too often overlooked by municipal-
ities.
Construction of Market House. — Other
things being equal, a market house which has
good breadth is preferable to a long, narrow
structure that it is necessary to build when
erected in a street. The broader market lends
138
THE COMMUNITY MARKET
itself to a more desirable arrangement of stalls
and general equipment, while the handling of
products is facilitated. The object which every
city should strive to attain in the construction
of a municipal market is the highest degree of
convenient and sanitary equipment at the min-
imum of cost. The mission of a market is to
increase the efficiency and decrease the cost of
food distribution; consequently, needless ex-
penditure of money is out of harmony with the
purpose to be fulfilled. The following points
should receive special attention and study. All
counters should be raised far enough from the
floor to permit of thorough scraping and wash-
ing underneath. Floors should be of non-ab-
sorbent material and so laid that they will
drain thoroughly. Ample arrangements for
flushing are necessary. Inside walls should be
of non-absorbent material, such as glass, mar-
ble, tile, soapstone, or slate.
Financing the Market. — When funds of any
considerable amount are needed, the ordinary
bond issue is used most commonly to provide
for the establishment of city markets. When
139
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
curb or other unimproved open markets are
used, the small expense incurred can be met
from the funds of some established department
of the city government. Whatever system of
operation is decided upon it is very essential
that in leasing market stalls the city retain
full control, making the duration of the lease
short, and tenure subject to full compliance
with all the rules and regulations of the mar-
ket. Inasmuch as a public market is a com-
munity institution, paid for and sustained out
of public funds, all values which it creates
should be returned to the municipality, except
a fair remuneration which must necessarily be
paid the stall renters in the shape of profits
for the service which they perform. There
should be no subletting or transfer of stalls,
unless unusual conditions seem to justify such
action.
While the municipal retail market surely has
its place in the present system of food distribu-
tion, its introduction should be accompanied
with even more mature judgment than would
attend the establishment of business institu-
140
THE COMMUNITY MARKET
tions by private agencies, for, in committing
itself to the retail market policy a city is de-
parting somewhat from the conservative path.
The public market is not a panacea for the
weaknesses of the retail system, nor is it advo-
cated that its use should displace the old estab-
lished agencies of retail marketing. Rather,
its service should supplement, cooperate with,
and to some extent regulate that which they
give.
CHAPTER Vin
THE COMMUNITY KITCHEN
The Conununity Kitchen, long dreamed of
and spasmodically experimented with in vari-
ous localities, began to come into its own in
the first year of war, and in the second year ten
kitchens grew where one had grown before.
These kitchens are of two kinds: those oper-
ated during the summer months for the canning
and drying of food for winter use, and those
operated all the year round for the purpose
of providing wholesome, well-cooked food at
nominal prices to school children and to wom-
en who work and who have no time to devote
to marketing and cooking.
Cooperatwe Canning and Drying. — The pub-
lic cooperative kitchen for canning and drying
of food came into existence on a large scale as
a war emergency measure, and in answer to
142
THE COMMUNITY KITCHEN
the Government's insistent demand that no
food be allowed to waste. Practical encourage-
ment has been given to the enterprise by the
Government through the Department of Agri-
culture, and those interested should write for
Farmers' Bulletins Nos. 916, 903, and 841. Gov-
ernment experts have studied various phases
of the work and are prepared to furnish valu-
able information and advice to those who seek
it.
Municipal or Government owned drying
plants have been in successful operation in
European countries for years. Such plants
provide village communities with a convenient
and simple method of drying all sorts of prod-
uce of the home garden and orchard, as well
as the vegetables and fruits shipped to the
community, which might be allowed to go to
waste at the stores and market places. The
advantage to the busy farmer's wife in the
country community can not be overestimated.
Her work is heaviest in the summer when vege-
tables and fruits must be saved for winter use.
The establishment of a coiomunity drying plant
143
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
at a school, country church, or centrally located
farm home would offer a great relief from her
heavy kitchen duties. The housewife could
clean and slice at least a portion of the fruits
and vegetables she desires to conserve, and
take or send these to the community drying
plant, calling for the dried product later.
Municipalities might well establish plants
from municipal funds, the work being super-
vised by the city council or other town author-
ity. If the plant is not a municipal plant it
is best to place it under the guidance of some
association already in existence, or a special
community club organized for the purpose. In
one community where a drying plant was es-
tabhshed a special community club of approxi-
mately sixty families was organized, primarily
to look after the operation of the drying plant.
The officers, consisting of president, vice presi-
dent, secretary and treasurer, constitute the
executive committee, and are entrusted with
power to act. A simple form of constitution
and by-laws was adopted at the first meeting,
and meetings are held monthly or oftener when
144
THE COMMUNITY KITCHEN
necessary, usually at the drying plant, which,
in this community, is in a room of a church
building.
Employ a Caretaker. — Whether the plant is
operated by a municipality or by a community
club, it is necessary to have a caretaker who
will be at the plant during certain hours of the
day to receive and deliver fruit and vegetables,
to keep the plant in proper condition, and to
keep the fan and motor running. Usually it is
best to have the plant open to the public from
two to four hours a day, say, from 10 to 12
o'clock in the mornings and from 4 to 6 o'clock
in the afternoons. The caretaker should live
near the plant. In case a community plant is
established in a country district it would be
well to have the plant located at the home of
the caretaker.
The caretakers may be paid by the hour for
their services, and the money may be obtained
by making a charge of from two to five cents
a tray for the privilege of drying. Unless the
motor power is supplied by the municipality,
club, or some public-spirited individual, it is
145
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
necessary to make this charge sufficiently large
to cover cost of operating the motor.
Cost of Equipment. — The problem in most
communities is to start work without an outlay
of $1,000 or more that is necessary when a
large, standard drying machine is used. Many
plants are in operation on a much more eco-
nomical basis. Such plants may easily be con-
structed from material obtainable in any com-
munity, at a cost of approximately $250. If
certain of the material is furnished by those
who happen to have it on hand, this cost is
reduced. A simple long cabinet is constructed,
ordinary flooring being used for the bottom and
either flooring or wall boards for the sides
and top. For convenience the openings are
placed at the top of the cabinet. The suction
holds the lids firmly in place. In practice it
has been found unnecessary to use lid fasteners.
Such a dryer could easily be built to hold one
hundred trays, each of the five compartments
containing twenty trays arranged in tiers of
ten.
Material Required. — Such a plant was con-
146
THE COMMUNITY KITCHEN
structed at Lincoln, Nebraska, where it was
operated with great success. A bill of material
required is as follows:
2 pieces— 2" by 4" by 12' long; 7 pieces—l"
by 6" M. F. by 18' long; 2 pieces— 1" by 4" by
16' long; 4 pieces— 1" by 4" by 18' long; 1
piece— 1" by 4" by 12' long; 1 piece— 1" by 3"
by 16' long; 1 piece— 1" by 2" by 16' long; 1
piece — 1" by 2" by 14' long; 4 pieces — 1" by
li/o" by 18' long; 2 pieces— 1/2" by 1" by 10'
long; 2 pieces — 1/2" by 1" by 14' long; 2 pieces
— 1^" by 1" by 18' long; 1 piece— 3^" by Q. R
by 18' long; 1 piece wall board— 48" by 49';
wire screen, 24" by 40" for intake end.
This is bill for cabinet without fan.
Trays for Drying. — The tray 18 inches by 36
inches has been found to be admirably adapted
to community work. It holds about the quan-
tity of material of one kind ordinarily brought
by the family for drying. It is light and easily
handled, the support across the top serving as
a convenient means of lifting. These trays
should be made of very light material, with
wire-screen bottoms and wire screen at one
147
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
end, the other end being left open. The
screened end prevents light material from be-
ing drawn through, while the open end permits
free access of air and ease in emptying trays.
The screened end should always be turned
toward the fan when suction is used. This
same type of tray is admirably adapted to the
electric-fan method of home drying by stacking
these trays one on the other and placing the
fan at the open end of the trays. Following
is a bill of material for making 100 trays: 50
pieces— 1/2" by 2" by 12' long; 38 pieces— 1/2"
by 11/2 '' by 12' long; 50 yards wire screen, 26
inches wide. The wire-screen trays should be
paraffined to prevent the sliced fruits and vege-
tables from sticking. This can be done easily
by warming the wire and applying melted par-
affin with a brush. If any of the paraffin fills
the meshes they can be opened by holding over
a stove until paraffin melts and distributes it-
self over the wire. The paraffin prevents all
possibility of discoloration of fruits and vege-
tables by coming in contact with the wires.
The Fern. — Any type of fan which moves a
148
THE COMMUNITY KITCHEN
suflScient quantity of air can be used. Usually
an old ensilage cutter blower fan or a separa-
tor fan used on a blower thrashing machine
can be found in the community and adapted to
the exhaust end of the cabinet. Suitable fans
may be purchased from any of the fan manu-
facturing companies at from $25 to $50. The
most important point to watch in the construc-
tion of a plant of this type is the fan. It
should be simple in construction, easy of opera-
tion, and, above all things, large enough to
move great quantities of air. When 100 trays
are filled with fruits and vegetables it is nec-
essary to move the air rapidly to prevent sour-
ing and molding. The main point to keep in
mind in the selection of a fan is to get one that
will move a suflScient quantity of air.
The Motor. — The fan may be operated by an
electric motor of from 2 to 5 horse-power or
by a gasoline engine of similar power. With
an electric motor the only attention needed in
operating is oiling the fan and occasionally the
motor. A gasoline motor will require more
attention in the way of oil and fuel supply, but
149
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
even this is simple to operate and understood
in every community.
Use of Heat in Drying. — Experience has
taught that a better colored and better flavored
product is obtained if no artificial heat is ap-
plied. Even in arid countries, however, and
always in humid countries, it is best to have
equipment for heating. This will be needed
when the air contains much moisture, as during
rainy weather. Heating the air in the room
in which the drying is done will lower its
humidity and facilitate the drying. If the tem-
perature of the air is raised above 120 degrees
Fahrenheit, however, some of the dried prod-
ucts may be discolored or the natural flavors
may be changed. The simplest method of rais-
ing the temperature of the air is by having
the intake end of the drier in a room in which
there is a stove. The stove should be within a
few feet of the intake end. Caution should be
observed to avoid fire in view of the strong
draft flowing from the hot stove to the inflam-
mable drier.
A Model Club. — One of the most successful
150
THE COMMUNITY KITCHEN
of the canning and drying clubs in America is
that inaugurated and operated by twelve girls
of Harvard, Massachusetts, and the plan fol-
lowed is worthy of study. Amateur work is
often excellent, but there is always the element
of chance in it, because the knowledge of the
fundamental principles is apt to be superficial,
and so the Harvard girls decided to begin their
work by taking a thorough training that would
be a solid groundwork for whatever branch
they might choose to specialize in later. A
fund was subscribed and a paid demonstrator
engaged to instruct the class every Saturday
during the spring. Upon hearing of the plans
the Worcester County Farm Bureau showed
its interest by arranging for its Junior Club
Supervisor to visit the demonstration room
every other week and pass judgment on the
work.
There was no entrance fee, no club dues to
pay, no charge for instruction, and no expense
for the girls of any kind. Only one thing was
earnestly asked for and expected of them — that
they would work seriously and with patriotic
151
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
enthusiasm, always keeping before them the
desire to give their best efforts in this work
for their country.
Canning Outfit. — The canning outfit con-
sisted of a home canner, costing $50.27; a
water-seal canner that held ten jars satisfac-
torily, costing $9 ; and a pressure cooker, hold-
ing four one-quart jars, three two-quart jars,
or six pint jars, and costing $20. All of these
canners are said to be excellent, but each has
its especial advantage. For instance, things
that need long cooking can be done in less time
in the pressure cooker, and for canning meats
it is unsurpassed. For commercial purposes
where attractive appearance is essential, the
water-seal canner will be found especially satis-
factory. The home canner, while excellent in
every respect, has the advantage of being large
enough to turn out the greater number of jars
at one time. ''We used glass jars entirely for
our canned products," said the director of this
club, ''and nearly everything was done by the
cold-pack method. Not one of our jars spoiled.
But the rubber rings should be tested as to
152
THE COMMUNITY KITCHEN
whether they can stand sterilizing without
softening, and perfect cleanliness is imperative.
Over one thousand jars of canned food were
put up by the club and over one thousand jars
were put up by the girls in their homes."
Evaporating Outfit. — The evaporating outfit
used with success by this club consisted of two
evaporators, which could be attached to a stove
flue inside, or used outside, capacity ten bush-
els; and a cook-stove drier, costing $6 which
has eight galvanized wire-cloth trays and which
can be set on any ordinary cooking-stove or
on an oil stove. A bushel can be evaporated
at one time in this drier. The club also had
four apple paring machines and two vegetable
slicers. By having such conveniences as these
a great deal was accomplished in a short time.
Any child can prepare a large crate of apples
in an astonishingly short time with these ma-
chines.
The aim of the club was to conserve the food
that contained the most nutrition, and about
136 pounds of sweet com was evaporated. One
pound of evaporated com just fills a quart box
153
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
and equals half a bushel, or three and one-half
dozen ears. It is said that when the com is
brought fresh from the field and evaporated
immediately the quality is exceptionally good.
"We were able to do this with practically all
of our food," said the director of the club,
"and this proved to be one of the great factors
in the successful results we had."
Methods of Conserving Food.— The two
methods of conserving food — canning and dry-
ing— ^fiU different needs, and one can not take
the place of the other. Canned goods are con-
venient for immediate use. In the army, for
instance, where weight and bulk count so much
in transportation, evaporated goods are espe-
cially valuable. The high cost of tin, glass,
and sugar makes canning a luxury for many,
while the only expense attached to evaporating
is in the cost of the evaporator and the fuel to
heat it, which amounts to little.
Business Basis Advisable. — Everywhere the
opinion is expressed that such enterprises
should be placed on a business basis from the
beginning. A private enterprise can never ac-
154
THE COMMUNITY KITCHEN
complish the far reaching results that are pos-
sible when the municipality is responsible. In
order that such clubs may be of permanent
value they should become town activities and
not be dependent on any private individual.
The members of the club should be given thor-
ough instruction without cost to them. By the
end of the first season the work should have
demonstrated its worthiness to live and the
municipality should see that it is placed under
the supervision of the Farm Bureau or some
equally established agency so that it may be-
come a permanent and self-supporting activity.
In many places the work has been started on
funds raised by benefit entertainments, private
theatricals, tableaux, motion pictures, etc.
After equipment has been provided for, a sys-
tematic campaign is necessary to get the need-
ed supply of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Ideal Location Is School. — ^It goes without
saying that the school is the ideal place for the
kitchen, especially if it is a modem school, fitted
with ranges, etc. The assistance of the home
economics teacher is usually easy to secure,
155
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
and if possible it is better to pay the demon-
strator from the beginning. In Fairfield Coun-
ty, Connecticut, the women worked an inter-
esting plan for financing their work. They got
twenty banks to cooperate by loaning money
on ''character notes." In order to stimulate
an interest and instruct the women, they is-
sued two bulletins, one on the cold pack method
of canning and one on drying and evaporating.
These women sold at cost to the women of the
community between 400,000 and 500,000 glass
jars and 600,000 rubber rings. The organiza-
tion manufactured its own canning outfits, us-
ing the style of container recommended by the
State Agricultural College.
Some Practical Suggestions. — In taking up
the work of community canning and drying,
follow one set of instructions, otherwise it is
easy to make fatal mistakes. Begin by learn-
ing the conservation of the simple, inexpensive
products of the garden and orchard that would
otherwise go to waste. Do not attempt to can
imported products; to teach the canning of
pineapple and bananas in the Northern and
156
THE COMMUNITY KITCHEN
Western states and neglect the canning of
beans, peas, and tomatoes is a serious mistake.
Become familiar with the requirements of the
Federal Food and Drugs Act of June 30, 1906,
as amended, especially the requirements in re-
gard to the statement of net weight or measure,
and the state laws governing grade, weight,
labels, and trade marks of all canned goods.
Canned goods prepared for sale within a state
are governed by state regulations; canned
goods prepared for inter-state shipment come
under the requirements of the Federal Food
and Drugs Act, as well as state regulations.
The Department of Agriculture recognizes two
types of canning demonstrations — one for club
members and one for training of teachers and
leaders.
Expert Advice Available. — The United
States Department of Agriculture at Washing-
ton, the National Food Administration at
Washington, and every State Agricultural Col-
lege has much valuable information, and no
group of persons should undertake a commu-
nity canning and drying enterprise until advice
157
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
has been obtained from such recognized author-
ities.
Y ear-Round Gomm>umty Kitchens. — The per-
manent, all-the-year-round community kitchen
can hardly be said to be a widely demonstrated
success, although the necessity of war forced
many intensive experiments on a rather ambi-
tious scale, and many of these kitchens are
operating with pronounced success. Perhaps
the most successful of these ''neighborhood
kitchens" are those conducted in New York
City by the Home Economics Department of
the National League for Woman's Service. The
first in the chain of community kitchens started
in 1917 by this organization was opened at No.
409 East 50th Street and volunteers cheerfully
cooked for the women with household cares
who worked in the shops, factories or stores.
The day this kitchen opened more than fifty
women workers of the neighborhood stopped
in the morning on their way to work and left
their pails which they called for at noon. This
number rapidly increased and soon there came
an insistent demand for lunches for the school
158
THE COMMUNITY KITCHEN
children. Arrangements were made to furnish
thes2 lunches for five cents each, with one cent
extra for a cup of cocoa, and through a fund
started for the purpose free lunches are given;
to children who can not afford to pay. To avoid
humiliation or embarrassment, lunch cards are
issued to the children through their school
principals. The first day these lunches were
served thirty children enjoyed the privilege
and the second day the number had jumped
to more than one hundred.
Other community kitchens were opened later
in answer to definite requests at a time when
the question of coal in New York was an ex-
tremely vital one. Many women reported that
their children were suffering because they could
not get coal to cook with. It is estimated that
to open a community kitchen in a city, not less
than $500 working capital will be required al-
though, with good management, the kitchen
should soon be placed on a self-supporting
basis. Kitchens should be kept open every day
from 11 A. M. to 6 P. M. so that dinner as well
as lunch may be secured. An average of one
159
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
hundred a day are served in the New York
kitchens. Among the things served are maca-
roni, beef loaf, soup, stew, and rice muffins with
prunes, or stewed fruit. The only paid worker
attached to the kitchen is the cook who receives
$12 a week, though Mrs. Guy Tolman, who was
largely responsible for the success of this chain
of kitchens in New York, advises that in order
to get the best results, more paid help should
be employed.
CHAPTER IX
ORGANIZATION OF THE ETJRAL COMMUNITY*
(Plan Suggested by the United States Depart-
ment of Agriculture.)
In the New World, particularly in New Eng-
land, the methods of founding settlements gen-
erally promoted an organized rural life. Some-
times a minister of a church gathered a con-
gregation about him, led them out into the
wilderness, and planted them on the soil with
the church as the center of community life.
Even where this particular type of ''swarm-
ing" was not followed, the grant of land was
commonly made, not directly to an individual,
but to a town or township, and the individual
in turn got his grant from the town or town-
^ Adapted from bulletins of the Department of Agricul-
ture prepared by T. N. Carver, Director Rural Organiza-
tion Service.
161
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
ship. The management of the common lands
was a perennial problem calling for the effec-
tive organization of all the citizens of the town-
ship. The townships became, therefore, the
units of local government. Being a small and
effective unit, and having certain definite prob-
lems of an economic nature forced upon it, the
township easily undertook other tasks of a vol-
untary nature, such as drainage, operations,
the branding of livestock, the appointment of
herdsmen to guard all the cattle of the town,
the fencing of common lands, the construction
of roads, etc.
Not only in New England, but everywhere
on the frontier, there were common overwhelm-
ing needs, such as common defense, clearing of
the forest, the erection of buildings, and other
tasks demanding the united strength of the
whole community, which forced the people into
a kind of cooperation. After the passing of
the frontier days there remained such common
interests as the local school, the care of roads,
the maintenance of the cemetery, to bring the
people together around a common interest and
162
ORGANIZATION OF RURAL COMMUNITY
give the neighborhood at least the germ of an
organization.
Under the public-land policy of the Federal
Government, however, particularly under the
preemption and homestead laws, an extremely
individualistic method of settlement was pro-
moted. While this policy doubtless served im-
portant public purposes, it tended to promote
disorganization rather than organization. Late-
ly the tendency has been to take the roads and
schools out of the hands of the local units and
put them directly under county and state ad-
ministration. This change probably insures a
higher administrative efficiency, but it undoubt-
edly tends to remove the last vestiges of the old
basis of rural organization. It is doubtless to
be desired that this centralizing process should
go on until the entire school system of a state
is administered as a unit and every country
child is provided with as good a school as any
city child. At the same time it will be neces-
sary to find a new basis of organization to take
the place of the old bases which have been
swept away.
163
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
Efforts at Reorganization. — Beginning witli
the granger movement of the late sixties and
the early seventies of the last century, the coun-
try has witnessed a series of movements, some
ephemeral and some lasting, looking toward
a reorganization of rural interests, until we
now have the National Grange, which is the
dominant agricultural organization in the
northeastern section; the Farmers' Education-
al and Cooperative Union, which is very strong
in the South ; the Grieaners, who are particular-
ly strong in Michigan and parts of adjoining
states; and the American Society of Equity,
which is strong in the entire Northwest; be-
sides many smaller organizations. Experts are
of the opinion that it is doubtful if any one of
them has yet demonstrated that it has found
the key to universal success in this direction.
There seems to be need, in the interest both of
these existing organizations and of the multi-
tudes of farmers not yet affiliated with any or-
ganization, that a permanent body of some kind
should begin a comprehensive study of the
whole problem of organizing rural life for eco-
164
ORGANIZATION OF RURAL COMMUNITY
nomic, sanitary, educational, and social pur-
poses. Perhaps the present tendency to a more
general and more closely-knit organization of
the individual rural communities may be pre-
paring the ground for a larger and more far
reaching association in the future. No more
practical plan exists for the organization of
rural communities than that suggested by the
Department of Agriculture through the bul-
letins prepared by Mr. T. N. Carver, Ad\'iser
in Agricultural Economics, from which the fol-
lowing outline and explanations have been pre-
pared.
Outline of Plan. — This is not a plan for the
** uplifting" of the farmers, who are quite ca-
pable of taking care of themselves, although
they Lave not yet taken up the work of organ-
ized self-help as completely as could be desired.
It is hoped, however, that these suggestions
may persuade many of them to study the need
for and the results of organization, and to act
in accordance with the results of their study.
No single plan of organization will suit all
rural communities. There must be a clear and
165
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
definite need for organization before any or-
ganization can hope to succeed, and they who
are on the ground and who know the local con-
ditions must determine for themselves how far
this plan fits the case. It is of the utmost im-
portance that careful study should precede ac-
tion. Hasty, ill-considered action is likely to
lead to mistakes and failures. A few bad mis-
takes and conspicuous failures will discredit
the whole movement and put it back for a gen-
eration.
The plan is similar to that of the chambers
of commerce in some of our large cities. The
whole membership of the organization is to be
divided into committees, each member being
assigned to one committee. Naturally each one
should be assigned to that committee whose
work interests him or her most. There should
be a central or executive committee composed
of the president of the organization, its secre-
tary, its treasurer, and the chairmen of the va-
rious committees. This central committee
should direct the general policy of the organ-
ization, have charge of all property, either
166
ORGANIZATION OF RURAL COMMUNITY
owned or rented, raise all funds needed, control
them and their expenditure, appoint all paid
officers, such as secretaries, inspectors, packers,
business managers, etc., if any are needed, de-
termine their salaries and conduct all corre-
spondence with other organizations of a sim-
ilar character, as well as with business or bank-
ing houses, railroad companies, manufacturers,
etc.
The first thing to decide is what are the prin-
cipal needs of the community in question, in
order that the proper committees may be con-
stituted.
Advantages of Organization. — There is prob-
ably not a farming community in the United
States which does not need some, at least, of
the things named in the above outline. Yet
none of these things can be secured by indi-
vidual farmers working alone. Some form of
"team work" will be found necessary or ad-
vantageous in every case. Team work counts
as much in business competition as in athletic
contests; but the team work, in either case,
needs to be wisely directed according to a well-
167
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
considered plan. After long study of the ques-
tion Mr. Carver reached the conclusion that the
ten principal needs for organization in the
average rural community in the United States
are as follows ;
Needs of Eu-
ral Cominuni-
tiea which Ee-"
quire Organi-
zation.
1. Business Needs.
2. Social Needs.
1. Better farm produc-
tion.
2. Better marketing fa-
cilities.
3. Better means of se-
curing farm sup-
plies.
4. Better credit facil-
ities.
5. Better means of com-
munication : (a)
Eoads; (b) Tele-
phones.
'1. Better educational
facilities.
2. Better sanitation.
3. Better opportunities
for recreation.
4. Beautifieation of the
country-side.
5. Better home eeonom-
There are now more than six and one-half
million farmers in the United States ; they are
widely scattered; they have a great diversity
of interests, many of which are difficult to har-
monize, and the farmers are by temperament
168
ORGANIZATION OF RURAL COMMUNITY
an independent, individualistic class, and there-
fore difficult to organize. Thus it is not diffi-
cult to understand why their progress in or-
ganization has been slow.
The work of rural organization has been rec-
ognized by the Secretary of Agriculture as a
legitimate part of the work of his department
and this recognition bids fair to mark a new
epoch in the history of American Agriculture.
''The characteristic of an agricultural spe-
cialty [says Mr. Carver] is that there is no
organized market for it and it does not regu-
larly sell at a quotable price. If it did it would
not be a specialty. The isolated small farmer
could scarcely make a living by growing this
kind of a crop unless he were near a large city,
and even there he would probably have to give
as much time and thought to the marketing of
his crop as to the growing of it. If he were
not thus favorably located he could scarcely
market his specialty at all unless he were either
growing it on a very large scale, so that he
could maintain a selling agency of his own,
or were cooperating with a group of other
farmers for the same purpose. If they were
169
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
thus organized they could make more off some
of this land which is now being neglected than
they could possibly make off the virgin lands
of the far Northwest. But as isolated, unor-
ganized farmers they can doubtless make more
off those new lands growing a staple crop which
almost markets itself. Until we succeed in
developing an organized rural life — ^until our
farmers are willing to work together instead of
working as isolated unorganized units — they
will continue to neglect such lands as require
organization for their successful cultivation
and migrate to new lands which are capable of
being farmed by the old methods.
'^A similar problem is met with in the pro-
motion of irrigation farming. There are only
a few places where an individual farmer can
reclaim land and bring it under irrigation. Un-
til some organization could be formed to handle
the problem or until the state or federal gov-
ernment took up the matter, individual farmers
ignored very productive irrigable land in favor
of inferior land which had the advantage of
being capable of individual reclamation. Again,
there are vast areas which require drainage.
In only a few cases can this drainage be done
by individual small farmers.
170
ORGANIZATION OF RURAL COMMUNITY
* * Of immediate importance in this connection
is the problem of the preservation of the small
farmer who does most of his own work on his
own farm. His salvation depends upon his
ability to compete with the large farmer or
the farming corporation. Two things threaten
to place him under a handicap and to give the
large farmer the advantage over him in com-
petition. If these two things are allowed to
operate the big farmer will beat him in com-
petition and force him down to a lower stand-
ard of living and possibly to extinction.
*'One thing that would tend in that direc-
tion is a large supply of cheap labor. The
small farmer now has the advantage because
of the diflBculty which the big farmer has
in getting help. * * * Another thing which
threatens the prosperity and even the existence
of the small farmer is the handicap under
which he finds himself in buying and selling.
The big farmer who can buy and sell in large
quantities, and also employ expert talent in
buying and selling, and in securing credit, has
an advantage over the small farmer who must
buy and sell in small quantities and give his
time and attention mainly to the growing of
crops rather than to selling them. * * * When
171
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
it comes to the work of growing farm crops,
as distinct from selling them and buying raw
materials, the one-family farm is the most effi-
cient unit that has yet been found. But the
big farmer can beat the individual small farmer
in buying and selling. Therefore, it would seem
desirable from the standpoint of national effi-
ciency, to preserve the small farm as the pro-
ducing unit, but to organize a number of small
farms into larger units for buying and selling.
Thus we should have the most efficient units
both in producing and in buying and selling."
Committee on Production. — The plan under
consideration for the organization of a rural
community begins with the committee on pro-
duction. The greater part of the actual pro-
duction can probably be carried on most eco-
nomically on individual farms of a size which
can be cultivated mainly by the labor of one
family. This calls for very little cooperation
or organization. But the study of the prob-
lems of production can undoubtedly be carried
on most effectively in cooperation. If a hun-
dred men in a community are all studying the
problem of growing the crops of that com-
172
ORGANIZATION OF RURAL COMMUNITY
munity, but each man studies alone and does
not exchange ideas with his neighbors, each
man profits only by his own study; but if
they meet frequently to discuss their com-
mon problems and to exchange ideas, each
man profits not only by his own study but
by that of all his neighbors. Again, much
of the work of organized marketing must
begin before there is anything to sell. It must
begin with production. Successful marketing
consists, first, in finding out just what the con-
sumers want and how they want it packed and
delivered. To get the whole community to grow
a uniform product such as the consumers de-
mand requires organization of the community
to standardize its production. Again, to stimu-
late rivalry in improving the products of the
community, both as to quality and to quantity,
requires an organization to recognize and show
some appreciation of merit.
The problem of marketing farm produce is
the one which is now attracting much public at-
tention and calling for organization. The
problem of economic and eflScient marketing —
173
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
that is, of securing for the producer the largest
possible proportion of the price paid by the
consumer — is largely a problem of selling by
grade rather than by inspection. So long as
the farmer lived within hauling distance of the
consumer, so long as he could haul his produce
to town and show it, this method was satis-
factory. But when the producer lives at a great
distance from the consumer this method be-
comes expensive. Wherever there is a highly
efficient system of selling anything it will be
found that there has been developed a system
of grading and standardization; that is, the
goods are inspected only once and are graded.
Thereafter they are bought and sold by grade
with no further inspection. But this can not
be done without organization. The products of
a multitude of small farmers can be made uni-
form as to grading and packing by an organ-
ization and by no other means whatsoever.
Committee on Marketing, — The marketing of
farm products must begin, as has been stated,
with the production of things that are market-
able. Four accomplishments must precede the
174
ORGANIZATION OF RURAL COMMUNITY
actual selling of a product if the best results
are to be secured, and each of these accom-
plishments calls for organization. They are :
(1) The improvement of the product. This
ought to be one of the first results of coopera-
tion.
(2) The standardization of the product
through organized production and marketing.
(3) Branding. An excellent product, graded
and standardized, must then be so branded or
trademarked as to enable the consumer to
identify it or recognize it when he sees it. That
is really all there is to the stamp on the coin.
It adds nothing to the intrinsic value of the
metal, but it makes it circulate.
(4) Education of the consumer. The con-
sumer must be educated as to the meaning of
a stamp or trademark on goods which are ex-
cellent in themselves and uniform in quality.
This may call for some form of advertising
which can be financed effectively only by an or-
ganization.
Committee on Securing Farm Supplies. — -
There are three methods of purchasing farm
175
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
supplies cooperatively. The simplest method
is that of a joint order, where a group of farm-
ers combine their orders so as to get a given
article in large quantities — say in carload lots.
The second method is the same except that it
involves the use of a warehouse which is owned
or rented cooperatively. The third method is
to run a cooperative store, which performs for
the members of the organization all the serv-
ices ordinarily performed by a privately owned
store. A group of farmers who have not had
commercial experience will usually find it wise
to begin with the first and simplest of these
methods rather than with the second or third.
The third, in fact, is only to be undertaken after
the most careful consideration on the basis of
actual experience.
Committee on Farm Fimance and Accownts. —
The promotion of farm accounting and the
study of farm accounts in order to find out what
farm enterprises can safely be financed is the
first duty of this committee. The next is to find
out how these enterprises can be financed on
the most favorable terms. These problems in-
176
ORGANIZATION OF SURAL COMMUNITY
volve many complications which, at best, could
only be dealt with superficially in a book of
this kind and those interested should make a
comprehensive study of the subject. Probably
no form of cooperation has been so successful
for so long in this country as that which is
known as mutual insurance. Farmers' mutual
insurance companies are spread over the en-
tire country; but they are especially numerous
in the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Michi-
gan, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Min-
nesota. They are too familiar to call for fur-
ther mention here. They furnish insurance at
cost, they are cooperative and they serve as
examples of what farmers may gain by work-
ing together for their mutual interests.
Committee on Communication and Transpor-
tation.— There is a special need that country
people have the best possible means of over-
coming distances which separate them from
one another — distances measured in miles
rather than in hundreds of miles. As the char-
acteristic evils of urban life grow out of con-
gestion, so do the characteristic evils of rural
177
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
life grow out of isolation. Except for a few
rare souls isolation means stagnation. It is
clear that any farmers' organization wMcli
aims to improve the economic and social well-
being of its community must give a good deal
of attention to the subject of local communi-
cation and transportation. In this as in all
other rural-organization work the key-note
should be organized self-help. Give the neigh-
borhood easy means of neighborly communica-
tion and the neighborly spirit will in turn be de-
veloped among all normal and right-minded
people.
Social Interests. — The preceding paragraphs
relate to the business interests of rural com-
munities, and all rural improvement must be
built on a solid business foundation. But it is
important to consider also what is to be done
with the prosperity of a community when its
business interests are well organized. It is a
mistake to suppose that the one thing needed
to improve country life is to increase the farm-
ers' income. The wealthy farmer is even more
inclined to move to town than the unprosper-
178
ORGANIZATION OF RURAL COMMUNITY
ous farmer. He is not likely to remain in the
country if the town provides and the country
lacks everything he wants and feels that he can
afford. Town schools are thought to be bet-
ter, as a rule, than country schools, and so
long as people believe this, whether it is true
or not, people who appreciate education and
who can afford it will move cityward. Then,
better sanitary conditions are usually found in
the city. With aU the natural advantages the
country should be healthier than the city and
if it is not so it means that country people are
negligent, and that they have not taken hold of
the problem with the same vigor as have the
city people. The city also affords better op-
portunities for recreation, although in this re-
spect also the country has the natural advan-
tage. And another reason why country people
who can afford it move to the city is the lack
of household conveniences that are found in
the country. All of these things are possible in
the country as well as in the city, but they are
far less common, and the chief reason for this
is the lack of community action. It is within
179
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
the power of any rural coimniinity to correct
these conditions. It is simply a matter of work-
ing together. There are no fundamental rea-
sons why the city should have the advantage
over the country in matters of education, sani-
tation, recreation, beautification and household
conveniences and if the community organizes
and gives attention to its social problems as
well as to its business interests conditions wiU
be rapidly changed. It has been predicted that
if organization does not take place in rural
communities, and if the city should for a long
period of time have the advantage over the
country in the particulars named, nothing can
keep enlightened people from going to the
cities, leaving the country to people who either
do not care for these things, or who are so
inefficient as farmers that they can never accu-
mulate enough to enable them to move to town.
That is, instead of our progressive, enlighten-
ed, self-respecting agricultural population, we
shall drain off all the better elements, leaving
only a "peasant" population, ignorant, stolid,
unprogressive, and inefficient. Even the grow-
180
ORGANIZATION OF RURAL COMMUNITY
ing of crops must decline under such a system.
For all these reasons, it is quite as important
that our local organization shall give attention
to the social as to the business interests of
rural people.
CHAPTER X
BOYS* AND GIEI^* CTLTJBS
(Plan in Operation imder the Extension Worh
of the States Relations Service, U. S.
Department of Agriculture.)
The cooperative work that has been done for
the boys and girls of the country under the
direction of the States Relations Service of the
United States Department of Agriculture has
had a success that has been almost spectacular.
It would probably be difficult to trace the very
beginning of the club work among the boys of
the South, but as early as 1907 in Holmes
County, Mississippi, some cooperative work
was done. There have been sporadic and ephe-
meral organizations of com clubs in various
parts of the United States, but there seems little
doubt that the crystalization of the idea as it
has since developed on so broad a scale was
182
BOYS' AND GIRLS' CLUBS
due to the wisdom and foresight of Dr. Seaman
A. Knapp, who was Special Agent in charge of
Farmers ' Cooperative Demonstration work for
the United States Department of Agriculture.
Almost from the beginning of the Farmers* Co-
operative Demonstration work boys have been
enrolled as demonstrators and have worked
their plats under instrucfton of the demonstra-
tors just as the men have done. Dr. Knapp
realized very early in the work that there should
be a separate division known as the Boys*
Demonstration work, and as early as 1905 some
of the boys had their plats and were demon-
strating. From the beginning also Dr. Knapp
saw the necessity for organizing girls' work
and when a Boys' Corn Club was organized in
Aiken County, South Carolina, it was decided
to undertake a Girls' Tomato Club. The club
started with a membership of 46 under direc-
tion of Miss Marie S. Cromer. There are now
more than 1,000 Home Demonstration Agents
in the South, and reports for 1917 from fifteen
Southern states give 715 organized counties
and an enrollment of 61,589 girls as members
183
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
of the Canning Clubs; 11,717 girls as mem-
bers of the Poultry Clubs, and 82,227 women as
members of Home Demonstration Clubs, of
which there are 3,812. There are more than
2,995 women enrolled in Poultry work. All
these enrolled club members have received
regular instructions from Home Demonstration
Agents, and in addition to these, large numbers
of girls and women have received emergency
instructions and taken up certain phases of the
regular work — especially production of more
food, canning, drying and brining of vege-
tables and fruits, and the making of bread with
wheat flour substitutes. According to agents*
reports this vast army of women and girls who
have received the emergency instructions
amounts to between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000.
The value, not only to those directly touched
but to the whole country, from such splendid
cooperative work can not be estimated, and it
is perhaps not going too far to say that no
cooperative work now being done in America is
so remarkable as this among the girls. One
notable feature of the work has been the estab-
184
BOYS' AND GIRLS' CLUBS
lishment of 75 rest rooms, where farm women
coming to town can go with their children ; and
in some places conununity kitchens have been
established in connection with the rest rooms.
One hundred and three **Egg Circles" and 39
cooperative breeding associations have been or-
ganized. And thus through the teaching of one
thing thoroughly to a small group of girls in
1910 the work has grown to embrace practically
every phase of home life, and thereby has be-
come one of the greatest educational forces in
the South.
For convenience of operation the country is
divided into the South and the North and West,
but the work is done on practically the same
basis in the two sections.
Organizing for Boys' Club Work. — There
are now 40 different kinds of clubs among the
boys, averaging nine projects to a state, though
not more than nine are undertaken in any one
state. The most popular clubs are Com Clubs,
Potato Clubs, Garden Clubs, Canning Clubs,
Sugar Beet Clubs, Poultry Clubs, Pig Clubs
and Baby Beef Clubs. The first were the Com
185
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
Clubs, since corn can be produced profitably in
nearly all sections. The objects of these clubs
are: (1) to encourage and train boys along
the lines of the activities of country life; (2)
to put into practice the facts of scientific agri-
culture obtained from books, bulletins, etc.; (3)
to bring the school life of the boy into closer
relation with his home life ; (4) to assist in the
development of the spirit of cooperation in the
family and in the community; (5) to dignify
and magnify the vocation of the farmer by dem-
onstrating the splendid returns which may be
secured from farming when it is properly con-
ducted; (6) to enlarge the vision of the boy and
to give him definite purposes at an important
period in his life; (7) to furnish to the aggres-
sive progressive rural school teacher an oppor-
tunity to vitalize the work of the school by cor-
relating the teaching of agriculture with actual
practice.
Corn was selected for the first demonstra-
tion not only because it may be profitably culti-
vated in any part of the country, but because
boys have a common knowledge of it from child-
186
BOYS' AND GIRLS' CLUBS
hood and because com yields more food to the
acre in most sections of the United States, when
properly handled, than any other grain crop.
Cheapness of production is an important item;
the growing of more and better com in the
South is necessary for better farm conditions ;
it forms part of a proper rotation for soil
building and will furnish feed for a more ex-
tended livestock industry; it is the foundation
crop for home use in most of the Southern
states; and its more extensive growth will en-
courage diversification. In western Oklahoma
and Texas, where com is not adapted to the
climate, boys have been organized in kafir, milo,
maize, and feterita clubs. One acre is the unit
for these clubs.
Cotton is a standard crop in the South and
in any system of diversified farming must oc-
cupy an important place. Therefore cotton
clubs have been organized and one acre is the
unit of acreage. In 1914 Peanut Clubs were or-
ganized in Virginia with great success, and Po-
tato Clubs have organized wherever there has
been a demand for them.
187
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
In cooperation with the Bureau of Animal
Industry there have been organized pig, poul-
try, and baby beef clubs and in a number of
states specialists have been placed to cooper-
ate with the Agricultural agents in the Pig and
Poultry Club work.
After enrollment of the club members a meet-
ing or meetings of the boys interested should
be held, either at the courthouse or at some cen-
tral place in the county, for the purpose of in-
struction and organization. It is estimated
that a series of group meetings for each county,
held at three different times of the year, will
be sufficient to give ample instructions to the
boys. Such meetings should be held in ample
time to give instructions regarding the prepa-
ration of soil, selection of seed, fertilizers to be
used, methods of planting, cultivating, harvest-
ing, etc. The best results are generally ob-
tained when the following plans are followed in
a county: (1) the local teacher organizes the
club; and sends the names and addresses of
the boys to the county agent of the Farmers*
Cooperative Demonstration Work. If there is
188
BOYS' AND GIRLS' CLUBS
no agent, enrollment should be sent to the
county superintendent of education; (2) the
county agent, in cooperation with the county
superintendent of education, directs the work
in the county, holds county meetings, formu-
lates rules, and settles all county contests; he
receives the names and addresses of the boys
from the local teachers, makes copy of the same
for his office, and sends copy of names and ad-
dresses, arranged alphabetically, to the county
superintendent of education and to the state
agent in charge of Boys' Agricultural Clubs.
When there is no agent in the county the county
superintendent sends the names of the State
agent. It is important to classify the club mem-
bership with reference to the number of activi-
ties engaged in, as for example, Class A, boys
engaged in one activity; Class B, those en-
gaging in two lines of work ; Class C, those fol-
lowing three lines, and so on.
How Clubs Are Instructed. — The county dem-
onstration agent is the instructor of the county
club on the plats of the members. He should
assist the boys in every 'way possible. He
189
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
should be assisted by the county superintend-
ent of education in the enrollment of members.
The school officials should assist the boys in se-
lecting and measuring their land, help them to
understand bulletins, circular letters, etc., and
should visit the plats from time to time to en-
courage them. Parents should assist the boys
in every legitimate way and encourage them to
follow instructions closely.
Prizes and Premiums. — The United States
Department of Agriculture does not furnish
any money for prizes and is not offering pre-
miums. It has been found, however, that much
interest can be added to the work by securing
offers of prizes from public-spirited citizens of
the community or state. The chief prize in each
state should be a year's expenses in an agricul-
tural high school or college. The following ad-
ditional prizes are suggested: trips to exposi-
tions, state and county fairs; scholarships in
short courses in agricultural colleges and
schools; different kinds of farm vehicles and
instruments; registered pigs; pure-bred chick-
ens ; fine colts ; registered calves ; bicycles ; shot-
190
BOYS' AND GIRLS' CLUBS
guns; watches; articles of clothing; books on
agriculture and horticulture; and cash prizes of
from $2 to $20.
The Government offers every encouragement
to these young farmers and circulars of in-
struction are mailed to all boys enrolled. From
time to time circular letters calling special at-
tention to various steps in raising their crops
are mailed to the boys. The United States De-
partment of Agriculture and the colleges pub-
lish annually a large number of bulletins which
contain most valuable information on many sub-
jects of interest to farmers, and these furnish
excellent matter for discussion at club meet-
ings or schools. The boys are also furnished
with crop-record blanks, detailing a method of
keeping account of the expenses of production
and specifying steps to be taken in growing
their crops.
Rules of Award. — Only a few rules are neces-
sary in awarding the prizes. It is well for the
boys to elect their own officers, either in clubs
or in county organizations. The following rules
should be adopted by the clubs, with such modi-
191
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
fications to suit local conditions as may be nec-
essary :
1. Boys entering clubs and entering contests
must be between 10 and 18 years of age on
January 1 of any given year.
2. No boy should be allowed to contest for a
prize unless he becomes a member of the club
and agrees to submit his reports.
3. Members of the clubs must agree to study
the instructions of the Farmers' Cooperative
Demonstration Work.
4. Each boy must plan his own crop and do
his own work; if a small boy, from 10 to 14
years, he may hire help for heavy plowing in
the preparation of the soil. The hearty co-
operation of the father of the boy is of great
value.
5. Exhibits of 10 ears of corn, accompanied
by a written report and a written account, show-
ing the history of the crop, must be made at a
place designated for the purpose in the county.
Such exhibits may be held on a given day,
either at the county fair, or, if no fair is held
in the county, at the courthouse or some other
convenient place.
192
BOYS' AND GIRLS' CLUBS
6. The land upon which the boy's crop is
made must be carefully measured and the com
weighed in the presence of two disinterested
witnesses, who shall attest the boy's certificate.
This certificate must show that the plat con-
tains 4,840 square yards. The crop must grow
upon the acre.
7. The entire crop of com from the acre in
the husk should be weighed when it is in a dry
condition. Then weigh out 100 pounds sepa-
rately. Husk and shell this 100 pounds and
weigh the shelled corn. Multiply the weight of
all the corn in the husk by the weight of this
shelled corn. Point off the two right-hand fig-
ures and divide by 56. The result will be the
yield in bushels of shelled corn. In every case
where there is a prospective yield of 100 bushels
or more, notice should be sent to the State agent
in charge of boys' clubs in the State. A mois-
ture-tight container will be sent for a sample
of the corn, which will be taken before wit-
nesses, as directed in the circular which will be
forwarded to the contestant. This container
should be sent by mail, under a frank which
will accompany it, to the Office of Grain Stand-
ardization, Bureau of Plant Industry, United
States Department of Agriculture, Washington,
193
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
D. C, where a moisture test will be made. TMs
test is made in order to reduce all liigh yields
to an even standard. The Ofl&ce of Grain Stand-
ardization allows 14 per cent of moisture in
No. 1 com. Under this plan the same labora-
tory will make the tests for all the boys, and
fair treatment is thus guaranteed.
8. The club acre must be all in one body.
9. In awarding prizes the following basis
should be used in corn, cotton, and peanut
Per cent
(a) Greatest yield per acre. .>. . .,.■ 30
(h) Best exhibit ,. . ., 20
(c) Best written account, showing
history of the crop and how
to select seed .,. . . . .i 20
(d) Best showing of profit on in-
vestment based on the com-
mercial price of crop. ..... 30
The following basis of award may be used for
a limited teriiitory where the contests are on
poor land : -d j
^ Fer cent
(a) For percentage of increase. ./ 30
(b) For profit. .( ....... 30
(c) For exhibit , 20
<^) For history. .. , ,. 20
194
BOYS' AND GIRLS' CLUBS
In such cases a disinterested conunittee, or
a demonstration agent, determines what would
be the normal yield of the acre when turned
over to the boy. In order that boys who have
good land may not be debarred from statewide
competition an additional 30 points for yield
may be added to the above. Within the limited
territory the 30 points for percentage of in-
crease would obtain, while in the State the 30
points for yield would be used.
Basis of award in potato clubs :
Per cent
(a) Greatest yield 40
(h) Best showing of profit on in-
vestment 30
(c) Best exhibit .i 15
(d) Best history on how I made
my crop of potatoes 15
An exhibit of com consists of 10 ears; of
kafir, milo maize, or f eterita, 5 heads ; of cotton,
2 pounds of seed cotton and 10 open bolls; of
peanuts, 1 peck of cleaned nuts and 10 vines;
of potatoes, 1 peck of seed potatoes.
In estimating the profits, uniform prices
should be used. For instance, $5 per acre, or
$1 for one-eighth of an acre, for land rental;
195
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
10 cents per hour for the work of each boy, and
5 cents per hour for each horse ; $2 for a two-
horse load of stable manure, weighing about a
ton ; $1 for a one-horse load of manure, weigh-
ing about half a ton; and the market price for
commercial fertilizer. This plan of cost ac-
counting has the advantage of great simplicity,
but other methods may be adopted.
Badges and Emblems. — ^An emblem or badge
has been designed for the boys' agricultural
clubs, consisting of a book for the background,
with a four-leaf clover and a kernel of com,
or boll of cotton, or potato, on the book. The
word "Demonstrator" appears at the top of
the book and the words "Boys' Corn, Cotton or
Potato Club," at the bottom. Four "H's"
appear, one upon each of the leaves of the four-
leaf clover. The book is intended to emphasize
the necessity of education and definite knowl-
edge of farm and home interests for better
country life. The kernel of corn, or boll of
cotton or potato, denotes the crop being raised,
and the clover leaf combined with it is an em-
blem of the necessity of scientific training, ro-
196
BOYS' AND GIRLS' CLUBS
tation of crops, soil building, and consequent
larger education. The four ' * H 's " signify the
training of the head, hands, heart and health,
which are essential to a well-rounded life. The
word ''Demonstrator" means that every club
member is a demonstrator of the better methods
of modern agriculture. The cost of these
badges is very small.
All-star Corn Club.— The All-Star Com Club
of the United States is made up of boys who
raise 100 or more bushels of corn on their acres.
They and the prize winners who have come to
"Washington in the past, alone, are entitled to
wear the *' all-star" emblem, and the wearers
of these emblems receive certificates from the
extension divisions of the agricultural colleges.
By arrangements between offices concerned the
requirements for membership in the All-Star
Corn Club are uniform throughout the United
States. A special badge has been designed for
the members of this club, and special contests
are arranged for the members of the AU-Star
Clubs on a larger acreage.
Fairs cmd Exhibits. — ^Where there is a county
197
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
fair the boys' exhibits should be made there if
possible. Where there is no county fair the
exhibits should be collected at the courthouse
or some other public place. Exhibits of this
sort often lead to the establishment of a county
fair, and they stimulate the work and give
splendid opportunities for general instruction.
Although the club exhibit starts with com, its
development naturally leads to the exhibition
of other farm and garden products. The object
of the boys ' demonstration work is the same as
that among men — ^that is to secure the adoption
of better methods of farming and greater yields
at less cost. Many of the boys in the clubs who
l)egin to study agriculture in this way will con-
tinue the study in the agricultural colleges;
others will continue such efforts on their farms,
and all of them will make more useful and more
efficient citizens. From the pleasant and profit-
able experience of managing their small plats
they will develop into independent, intelligent
farmers. The country needs these farmers, and
the wise and judicious producer can enjoy
health, wealth, and contentment.
198
BOYS' AND GIRLS' CLUBS
The members of the Boys ' Corn Clubs in the
Southern states have made demonstrations
beneficial to their communities at a time when
great damage was being done by the cotton
boll-weevil. Their object lessons have been
equally potent during the period of depression
incident to the war and low-priced cotton.
Nearly every community in the South has had
its boy champion, whose influence has spread
for miles around, and many a manly, ambitious
boy has formed new purposes and started out
with a broader vision and brighter purpose be-
cause of his local success. The object lessons
furnished by the State prize winners have at-
tracted the attention not only of the Nation
but of the whole world. There are several
thousand boys in the southern states who are
members of pig clubs, and under the stimulation
and encouragement of the work they have start-
ed into profitable business enterprises. The
work is outlined here because it presents a
striking example of the results of cooperation.
CHAPTER XI
MOTHEE-DATJGHTEE CLUBS, POULTRY CLUBS AND
HANDICRAFT CLUBS
{Plan in Operation wider States Relation Serv-
ice V, 8. Dept. of Agriculture.)
Mother-Daughter Clubs. — The principal ob-
jects of the Mother-Daughter Clubs are (1) to
bring about a closer fellowship between mother
and daughter in the social and economic activ-
ities in the home, and (2) to preserve food by
canning, and thus save waste, reduce living ex-
pense, and improve the family diet. The bene-
ficial effects of such work are by no means con-
fined to the home, but in many cases are felt in
the social life and activities of the community
at large.
The plan for the Mother-Daughter Home
Canning Club should provide for work cover-
ing four years, but the work of each year should
200
MOTHER-DAUGHTER CLUBS
include canning as the primary activity of the
club members. During the first year canning
should occupy the larger portion of attention
and include the attendance at demonstrations of
canning, the study of canning literature with
home work in canning fruits and vegetables at
first, followed later by the canning of soups
and meats. The regular club meetings should
be held, as well as a club fair and a club
achievement day, suggestive programs for
which may be obtained from the Department of
Agriculture. The work of the second year
should continue the work of the first year, with
additional attention given to cooking lessons.
The work of the third year should continue the
work of the preceding years, with additional
lessons on canning, cooking and sewing. The
work of the four years should be planned to
cover four definite home-interest subjects, such
as home canning, cooking, sewing, and care and
arrangement of the kitchen.
Membership in a Mother-Daughter Home
Canning Club should be made by teams, each
team consisting of a senior and a junior mem-
201
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
ber, the senior members to be women 18 years of
age or over and junior members girls from 10 to
18 years of age. It is expected that members
will attend the regular meetings of the club, and
failure to attend meetings without a reasonable
excuse is usually regarded as a sufiScient cause
for forfeiting membership in the club. As the
j)rimary object of the club is the home canning
of fruits and vegetables the members are ex-
pected to attend canning demonstrations, and
to read the canning instructions furnished them
by the state leader of club work. In order to
secure successful results in canning and also to
have a uniform product when it is desired to
sell canned goods, members should agree to fol-
low instructions furnished for canning. Since
the usual basis of award and programs at club
fairs and festivals require that the exhibit be
accompanied by a record of the work done and
a story of the way in which members did the
work, it is very desirable that members keep ac-
curate records throughout the season. More-
over, if members keep a simple system of cost
accounting as well as canning records they will
202
MOTHER-DAUGHTER CLUBS
probably bave a better appreciation of tbe busi-
ness management of the home.
When interest is manifested in the organiza-
tion of a Mother-Daughter Home Canning Club
the State leaders in boys' and girls' club work
and extension workers in home economics
should be consulted and their cooperation se-
cured. They should be asked to furnish specific
outlines for local club work, suggestive pro-
grams for club meetings, and follow-up instruc-
tions. The constitutions used in different states
vary somewhat, but the following form, adapted
from one used by Mr. Otis E. Hall, State Club
Leader for Kansas, where the work has been
extremely successsful, contains the principal
features needed by the Mother-Daughter Home
Canning Club :
Aeticle I
Na/me
The name of this organization shall be the
Mother-Daughter Home Canning Club,
of County,
203
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
AnTICLiE II
Purpose
The purpose of this organization shall be to
teach and encourage the home canning of those
food products which are generally plentiful in
summer but scarce in winter, and to bring about
a closer friendship and cooperative spirit in
rural and village communities.
Aeticle ni
Membership
Seo. 1. Membership in this club shall be
made by teams. Each team shall consist of a
senior and a junior member. Senior member-
ship shall consist of women over 18 years of
age and junior membership shall consist of
girls from 10 to 18 years of age.
Sec. 2. After a club is properly organized,
additional members shall be admitted only by a
two-thirds vote of the club.
Sec. 3. A failure to attend three successive
meetings without a reasonable excuse shall be
sufficient cause for the forfeiting of member-
ship in the club. Also a failure to comply with
204
MOTHER-DAUGHTER CLUBS
the rules and by-laws of the club after due no-
tice in writing from the secretary shall be
cause for the forfeiting of membership.
Article IV
Organization and Officers
(No club shall be organized with less than five
teams.)
Sec. 1. The officers shall consist of a presi-
dent, a vice president, a secretary, and a treas-
urer. The duties of these officers shall be those
that usually devolve upon such officers in other
organizations of like character. The president,
for example, shall be the executive head of the
club and shall appoint all committees and shall
be ex officio member of all committees appoint-
ed. The committees shall consist of (1) a pro-
gram committee, (2) a social committee, (3) a
new membership committee, (4) a buying and
selling conunittee, and (5) a community wel-
fare committee.
Sec. 2. The election of officers. The officers
of this club shall be elected annually, and only
active members shall be ehgible to hold office,
and only those members in good standing shall
be eligible to vote for officers or on other busi-
205
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
ness propositions. All voting for officers shall
be by ballot unless otherwise ordered by the
club. Before any candidate can be declared
elected she must receive a majority of all votes
cast.
Sec. 3, Two of the four officers shall consist
of junior members and two of senior members ;
in so far as possible, one-half of the personnel
of all committees shall be of the junior mem-
bers.
Sec. 4. The right to vote shall be given to all
junior as well as senior members.
The membership of committees shall also be
divided as equally as possible between the
junior and senior members.
Abticlb V
Meetings
Sec. 1. There shall be, so far as practicable,
a regular meeting of the whole club every two
weeks or each month, and special meetings shall
be held subject to the call of the president. The
program of the regular meetings shall proceed
as follows: First, regular order of business;
second, a subject-matter program or an actual
canning demonstration by someone from the
206
MOTHER-DAUGHTER CLUBS
college or by one or more teams from the club,
or a practical and helpful discussion on some
definite phase of the canning problem; and
third, social session or adjournment.
Special meetings shall be subject to the call
of the president, and when a two-thirds ma-
jority of the membership of the club is present
business may be transacted the same as at any
regular meeting.
Sec. 2. The order of business shall be as fol-
lows ;
1. Call to order by the president or vice-
president.
2. Reading of minutes of last meeting by
the secretary.
3. Reports from standing or special com-
mittees.
4. Unfinished business.
5. New business.
6. Social program.
Article VI
Duties of Club Members
Every member is to carry out the rules of
the club, which rules shall be prepared or ap-
207
THE LITTLE DEMOOEACY
proved by the club leader. Each member shall
also make a final exhibit for the club if the
making of such exhibit is voted for by a ma-
jority of the members of the club.
The following basis of award is frequently
used as a guide by judges and referees in
awarding prizes, honors, and determining
credits for club work done :
1. Quantity or variety of canned products. 20%
2. Quality of canned products 20%
3. Appearance of canned products 20%
4. Profit on investment 20%
5. Records or stories of home canning work 20%
Total score , 100%
Poultry Clubs. — Of especial interest are the
Poultry Clubs that are being operated with so
much success in all parts of the country. The
object of forming boys' and girls' poultry clubs
is to give a better knowledge of the value and
importance of the poultry industry and the
marketing of a first-class, uniform product, to
teach better methods of caring for the poultry
and eggs and to show the increased revenue to
be derived from well-bred poultry where proper
methods of management are pursued.
208
POULTRY CLUBS
If you are contemplating the organization of
a boys* and girls' poultry club in your com-
munity, write to the state leader in charge of
the club work at the agricultural college, asking
for complete directions and cooperation in the
work. The state leader, an experienced leader
of boys and girls, will be able to assist you in
this work. The state college of agriculture will
supply the printed follow-up instructions, the
standard requirement for poultry club work
in the state, enrollment forms, report blanks
and possibly record books. Communicate also
with the county club leader or county agent as
well as county superintendent of schools and
make inquiry regarding the organization of
clubs in your county. When you have learned
the plans of the state and county club leader,
the county agents and the county superintend-
ent of schools you will be ready to take up the
work.
Get a small group of interested people to-
gether and discuss with them the plans for club
work. Secure the services of the state or county
club leader to explain the value of this work at
209
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
a general meeting of citizens, including teach-
ers. The services of the state dub leader should
be arranged for at least one month in advance
of the date of the meeting. At the close of the
meeting request the parents and children in-
terested in poultry-club work to assemble for a
few moments to discuss plans for organization
of a poultry club and securing a local leader for
the club group. Get the names and addresses
of boys and girls who desire to enter the club.
Make a record also of interested adults.
Call a meeting of the boys and girls interest-
ed and go over with them in detail the require-
ments for membership. Give every prospective
member an opportunity to talk and tell what he
has now or may have available for the home
project work. Have each member list things
required before he may become a member, and
require that these be secured before Novem-
ber first.
About November first call the members to-
gether and go over with them the requirements
of membership, accepting as members the ap-
plicants who have enrolled, signed agreement
210
POULTRY CLUBS
cards, and otherwise met the organization re-
quirements. Elect officers and place as much
responsibility on them as possible. The prime
object of boys' and girls' work is to develop
local leadership and responsibility through wise
direction and encouragement. Forward a list
of officers and members to the state leaders im^
mediately upon organization of the club. State
club leaders may furnish a ** charter" to each
club.
The state leader will send by mail to the club
members and local leader the necessary follow-
up instructions, printed forms, and report
blanks. These blanks will be accompanied by
adequate instructions for use. The secretary
of the club should be the custodian of perma-
nent records and should inspect all reports
made to the state or district leaders. The fol-
low-up instructions will be seasonable, bring-
ing to the club members the information they
will need at once. One piece of follow-up liter-
ature carefully studied and put into practice
is much better than information from several
sources that is conflicting and confusing. Do
211
THE LITTLE DEMOOBACY
not confuse children with literature from sev-
eral subject-matter specialists, instructors, and
instructions that do not agree on the details of
doing poultry-club work.
The state club leader is in a sense a special-
ist in extension methods and in the organiza-
tion of boys and girls into clubs to carry
on project work. He has the services of
subject-matter specialists who are trained in
the poultry work. The poultry specialist whose
services are available will meet with your
club and go over the poultry project with
the members. The specialist devotes all his
time to instruction and direction of leaders
and members. He should not be called upon
to take up problems in organization or to deal
with methods of general extension work. The
specialist may also help the local club leader to
become expert in poultry management.
Requirements for a complete poultry pro-
ject are as follows : (1) Local club must be or-
ganized before November 1. (2) A local leader'
is required for the group of members. (3);
Each member must have at least six hens and
212
POULTEY CLUBS
a male bird. (4) Each member must have ade-
quate housing facilities for poultry. (5) Each
member must keep an egg record, also all rec-
ords of cost of feed and receipts from sales.
(6) Each member must be personally responsi-
ble for the hatching of at least fifty chicks be-
fore May 15. (7) Each member must make an
exhibit of fowls, eggs, and record book or re-
port. (8) Each member must attend all meet-
ings of the club. (9) Each member must at-
tend all field meetings held by the club. (10)
Each member must prepare a written report
and story of his work.
The four-leaf clover emblem, described in the
previous chapter is the recognized trademark
of boys' and girls' club work. It has created
a large and growing fraternity of achievement
known and recognized throughout the United
States. For demonstration work each club
member should have a suitable club uniform
displaying the club emblem. The States Rela-
tion Service of the Department of Agriculture
at Washington or the State Agricultural Col-
leges will be able to supply bulletins and will
213
THE LITTLE DEMOCEACY
suggest programs for meetings. No meeting
should be more than one and one-half hours
long. If meetings are held in the evenings they
should begin early and adjournment should be
prompt. Poultry-club members should be given
a chance to drill in parliamentary practice and
the proper method of conducting a business ses-
sion in their club meetings. A few moments'
time devoted to this at the beginning of each
session will be found very beneficial. The third
division of the program at the regular club
meetings can be devoted entirely to social inter-
course if desired, with a view to the develop-
ment of the social and the cooperative strength
of the club membership. In connection with
these thirty-minute periods, guessing games,
poultry play contests, poultry stories and other
forms of entertainment may be provided. This
type of program will draw upon the resource'
fulness and originality of the local leader as
well as members. Consult with the poultry spe-
cialist and subject-matter departments of your
State College of Agriculture with a view to giv-
ing the kind of a program that will be season-
214
HANDICRAFT CLUBS
able and furnish to the club membership the
kind of instruction they will need in connection
with their home project.
Farm and Home Handicraft Clubs. — The
purpose of this club project is to encourage
boys and girls to spend their spare momenta
during the fall and winter months, or during
the entire school year in doing constructive
work and making useful things for the farm
and the home. Such handicraft work may be
readily co-related wdth the manual training
work of the school and with the agriculture and
home economics club work for the summer va-
cation. It may be so planned as to extend over
twelve months, or may be limited to the regu-
lar nine months' school year. The following
outline is furnished by the Extension Work De-
partment of the Department of Agriculture, as
a guide to the state, district and county leaders
with a view to helping them to cooperate in-
telligently in the club work and to encourage
and promote it :
1. That the age limits be the same as in other
clubs, i. e., from 10 to 18 years, inclusive.
215
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
2. Tliat each club member be required to se-
lect not fewer than 10 of the industrial units
and to work upon each of them during the
school or calendar year. If thought desirable
by the leader, a club member may specialize in
one line of work, with a view to acquiring so
much skill that his product will be salable. In
such cases he should be required to produce
twenty samples of his special kind of work.
3. That all of the work undertaken be ex-
hibited at some place selected by the state or
district club leader. The exhibits may be in
miniature or by photograph or drawing where
the exhibit space will not permit the showing of
original pieces.
4. That club members be required to furnish
drawings, plans and specifications of all the
units selected by them whenever this seems
necessary.
5. That all members taking up this work be
required to keep records of observations, costs,
and receipts, and to furnish reports of the work
in the form of financial statements and written
stories on the subject "How I Did My Handi-
craft Club Work."
6. That leaders consider seriously the desira-
bility of marking industrial units A and B —
216
HANDICRAFT CLUBS
A for th« girls* clubs and B for the boys* clubs.
This may be desirable in some places and not
in others. Leaders should not incorporate in
the club program any of the kinds of work
definitely required in other definitely outlined
projects and should add to the list any others
that are especially adapted to their communi-
ties.
Basis of Award. — The following basis of
award is suggested : Per
cent
1. Number and character of enterprises undertaken
and completed 25
2. Condition of the finished products exhibited 25
3. Skill, speed and accuracy shown by a demonstra-
tion in four units 25
4. Written reports and records of work 25
Total score 100
The handicraft units out of which the ten are
to be selected are as follows :
1. Eope tying and splicing (10 knots tied and
mounted).
2. Making seed testers (box, blotter and rag-
doll testers).
3. Making a hencoop and brooder.
4. Fruit grafting and tree surgery.
5. Making a flytrap or window screen.
217
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
6. Making a wood box for kitclieii or sitting
room.
7. Makiig a bird bouse and watering trough.
8. Making a hotbed or cold frame.
9. Making a stepladder or handy ladder for
farm and home.
10. Making 1 dozen vegetable market crates.
11. Sharpening saw, pair of scissors, carving
knife.
12. Making a medicine cabinet.
13. Making and laying a cement walk or floor.
14. Making a bookcase or library file.
15. First aid to farm implements, i. e., re-
pairing.
(a) Whippletree.
(b) Pair of shafts.
(c) Fork handle.
(d) Gate.
16. Drawing plan of 80-acre farmstead.
17. Forging — two kinds, practical, related to
farm work.
18. Welding — two kinds, practical, related to
farm work.
19. Horseshoe making.
20. First aid to household furniture, i. e., re-
pairing,
(a) Chair.
218
HANDICRAFT CLUBS
(b) Table.
(c) Picture frame.
(d) Door lock or hinge.
21. Pressing and cleaning men's and women's
suits.
22. Papering a room.
23. Painting, staining, or treating floor.
24. Making a farm dooryard gate.
25. Making a homemade fireless cooker, one of
two methods.
26. Making a home canner, one of two methods.
27. Making a kitchen shelf or kitchen work
chair.
28. Getting out a set of plans and specifications
for model farm home.
29. Giving first aid to school furniture and
equipment, such as the repair of a seat,
window, fence, broken gate, blackboard,
doorstep, or sidewalk.
30. Repairing the cover or broken back of a
book.
31. Metal work for household.
32. Modeling in clay and plaster.
33. Leather work; repair of leather goods or
art work.
34. Dyeing, stenciling, and block printing cloth.
35. Pottery for use in the home.
219
THE LITTLE DEMOCHACY
36. Basketry, i. e., making baskets for use in
gathering and marketing vegetables and
fruit.
37. Making a milk stool or bread-cutting board.
38. Homemade mill for fruit juice and cider.
39. Hat and coat rack for haU.
40. Making a table or a workbench.
41. Knitting or crocheting a rug.
42. Drafting a pattern for a garment or cutting
and fitting a garment.
43. Mending pottery, china, and glass.
The best time to enroll the club members in
this particular project is at the opening of the
school year, in the early fall, and members of
all other clubs are urged to take up this work
for the winter months.
Those interested in taking up this work
should secure a set of instructions prepared by
Mr. Otis E. Hall, agent in charge of boys' and
girls* club work for Kansas, who was assisted
by Mr. Gr. E. Bray, in charge of the manual
training shops of the State Agricultural Col-
lege, at Manhattan, Kansas ; and also the handi-
craft circulars issued by Mr. C. E. Bishop, of
the Iowa State College.
220
CHAPTER Xn
COMMUNITY MUSIC
Long before the Community Center idea had
crystalized into definite form it began to ex-
press itself spontaneously in music. This ex-
pression we find in the old-fashioned "sings"
in the rural schools ; and later in the great fes-
tivals and pageants in many of our cities. For
a number of years Boston has had a depart-
ment of music in its city government. In New
York City the idea attained the very flower of
its development in the Community Chorus
under the leadership of Arthur Farwell and
Harry H. Barnhart. In Rochester, Chicago,
and many other cities public music has been
recognized as a vital factor in the development
of a wholesome social life. There are those
who oppose Community Singing as it affects
the individual voices — ^the undeveloped and the
highly trained — ^but there are doubtless none
221
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
who deny the larger good that must come from
the harmonies of Community Music. In Cen-
tral Park, New York City, on one occasion 120,-
000 people were gathered to sing together. Not
a shrub was injured, not an article was report-
ed lost, not a person was ill or injured — ^police-
men had nothing to do. This was a striking
example of the unity of effort and singleness
of mind. One of the leading arguments in fa-
vor of war is that it makes a people one, that
it unifies their interests, provides a common
purpose, and gives opportunity for self-expres-
sion in common with fellow beings with like im-
pulses. All this may be said of Community
Music. ''The singing army is the fighting
army" came to be a slogan early in the war,
and in every camp of American soldiers at
home and abroad singing is encouraged and
professionally directed. Governor Brumbaugh
of Pennsylvania issued a proclamation urging
the organization of marching singing clubs to
arouse the nation to a higher, truer patriotism.
** Moving masses of singing souls," he says,
**will effectively summon all to loyalty and to
222
COMMUNITY MUSIC
sacrifice.** Governor Brumbaugh's proclama-
tion follows :
Whereas, When a people is at war it is
vital that they be united in spirit. There
can be no severance of purpose. We must
be spiritually in unison or we cannot na-
tionally survive. There is no more potent
power to mold the national will than song.
Music is the language of the race universal.
It has a meaning that finds interpretation
and acceptance in all people. Music is su-
premely significant in unifying and arous-
ing the American spirit. The rendering of
music to our people is not enough. They
must make music and become themselves
the voice of America, calling to the world
for justice, righteousness and victory.
This soul-call will best universalize itself
if our people sing and march. The moving
masses of singing souls will effectively
summon all to loyalty and to sacrifice ; and,
Whereas, Mr. John C. Freund and many
others in this war crisis sense keenly this
opportunity and have called upon our peo-
ple to give effective and practical expres-
sion to the spirit of America in song and
procession-,
223
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
"Now, therefore, I, Martin Grove Brum-
baugh, Governor of the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania, do call upon and earnestly
urge all of our people in all communities
in this Commonwealth to organize march-
ing clubs or singers. With flag and band to
lead, let our children and our men and
women march the streets of our cities and
the paths of our people with songs of the
republic and with stately hymns of reli-
gious fervor.
Let all lovers of music meet and plan to
do this high service. Let all our people
heartily cooperate. Let our municipal offi-
cials publicly commend the movement. Let
our newspapers urge its importance, and
let Pennsylvania be first and best in giving,
by marching bands of singers, lofty expres-
sion of loyalty to God and to country.
A ''Musical Melting Pot." — Music in the pub-
lic schools has developed to a remarkable ex-
tent within the past decade. Out of 1,928 cities
with a population of 3,000 or over (statistics of
1917), 1,332 employed a supervisor of music;
in 1,306 cities between 1,000 and 3,000 in popu-
lation, 789 employed a supervisor of music. In
224
COMMUNITY MUSIC
the mazes of New York City^s famous Green-
wich Village there is a ''musical melting pot"
where children of the old world are being
Americanized through the subtle agents of
music study, united understanding, and self-ex-
pression. American music and American mu-
sicians have no stauncher friend than Mr.
John C. Freund to whom is due much of the
rapidity with which the Community Music Idea
has developed. In Musical America, of which
Mr. Freund is editor, there is this mention of
Community Music in Greenwich Village :
*'In the crooked streets outside Washington
Square live a great number of foreigners — Ital-
ians, Jews, French — the very material of which
our standing rows are composed. To most of
these foreigners Greenwich Village Settlement
House is a haven of comfort, and Mrs. Simkho-
vich, who directs it, generally grants all the rea-
sonable desires of the neighborhood.
''Some seasons ago one little girl, followed
by nineteen others, stirred with ambition, came
to Mrs. Simkhovich and asked to be given piano
lessons. Being a veritable fairy godmother,
Mrs. Simkhovich transformed two tiny rooms in
225
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
Greenwich House into mnsio rooms, and there-
after the twenty enthusiasts received music les-
sons there. Soon, however, numberless other
children followed these first, and then it was
necessary to devote an entire house to the
music work of the school. It is this school
which is to preserve in the foreign children
their musical heritage, and yet make them truly
American in feeling.
**Any afternoon after 3 o'clock a visitor to
Greenwich Music School may hear a veritable
symphony of sound. From one room can be
heard the strains of little Angela taking her
piano lesson, in another room little Jacob is
trying to tune his violin, and should you peek
into a third room you would see a dozen earnest
children learning a children's symphony.
''The Greenwich School also trains its more
advanced students to teach. Their oldest
scholars give lessons to some of the younger
pupils. These pupil-teachers are never given
exclusive charge of their pupils, as they only
teach alternately with the members of the fac-
ulty. This alternate teaching, however, per-
mits them to get actual practice in teaching and
enables them to earn some money at the school.
'*Nor is the school quiet in the evenings.
226
COMMUNITY MUSIC
Again it is filled with the sound of music, only
now it is the older people, the parents of the
children, who are the performers. With char-
acteristic eagerness and with their tremendous
love for music, these people, peddlers, tailors,
flower makers, come and learn to sing the songs
they have always known by ear. Among them
are Italians, Jews, Americans, Lithuanians,
Poles and Germans. Such a conglomeration I
But this is where the Americanization comes in.
In their choral work, these people learn to sing
their favorite melodies. They sing, too, their
folk-songs in English, and nothing could be
more conducive to giving intimacy to the work
than the singing of native songs. The distinct
lines of demarcation made in everyday life by
language and racial differences are entirely
eradicated here. And this means Americaniza-
tion, for it tends towards the obliteration of
prejudices and towards mutual understanding.
Among such foreigners, where the spiritual life
is so greatly represented by music, such a
school as the Greenwich School must neces-
sarily be a great force for good.
**The school has also set out to satisfy an-
other want — to permit the entire neighborhood
the luxury which they so much desire of hear-
227
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
ing good music. At first it was tlie custom to
bring well-known artists to the school on Sun-
day nights, and to hear these the entire neigh-
borhood was invited. But later a series of con-
certs of the highest worth was planned. As a
general rule, the majority of people in this
section would be unable to attend the uptown
concert. ' '
Methods of Organizing. — No lengthy argu-
ment is needed here to emphasize the value of
Community Music. What is more important is
something of the method of organizing and di-
recting the work. New York is not typical, for
its problems are particularly individual, but
the difficulties encountered in establishing such
a movement in so great and so complex a city
make of success a real achievement, and entitle
the city to be called the Capitol of the Com-
munity Chorus World. Efficient, consecrated,
far-visioned leaders are essential to success in
any great movement, but mere human efficiency,
mere consecration to a single purpose, mere
vision of future physical possibilities are not
enough to build upon unless the foundation
228
COMMUNITY MUSIC
rests secure in a wholly spiritual conception
of the plan. New York was fortunate in its
Community Music leaders. Mr. John C. Freund,
editor and publicist, for half a century the
apostle and the earnest supporter of all that
is best to the world and music, has stood square-
ly behind the Community Music movement, both
personally and through his magazine. Mr.
Harry Barnhart, the leading conductor of Com-
munity Chorus in the East if not in America;
Mr. Arthur Farwell, composer and litterateur,
President of the New Y'ork Community Chorus
until the summer of 1917; Mr. W. Kirkpatrick
Brice, Treasurer and main financial supporter
of the work since its beginning; and Mr. Claude
Bragdon, the ** lighting master" who gave the
best of his creative genius — each has been a
potent factor in the New York success. But
while the public was being fired with the genius
of these men, seeing them and hearing them
and reading about them, Barnett Braslow, as
Executive Secretary, made the wheels go
round — those invisible wheels that must turn
and turn, and keep on turning, if results are to
229
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
be obtained — hig wheels and little wheels,
wheels that nobody sees or kaows or cares
about. It is doubtful if any of the men whose
genius has directed the Community Chorus in
New York City know more about the practical
working of the plan, the dangers and difficulties
to overcome, the pitfalls to be avoided, than
Barnett Braslow. ''A Community Chorus,"
says Mr. Braslow, "in the sense in which it is
used in the East, particularly in New York City,
Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, East Orange, New
Jersey; Providence, Ehode Island; Pittsfield,
Massachusetts;, Batavia, New York, etc., is a
chorus open to all who desire to sing for the
pure joy of singing, regardless of previous mu-
sical training. No voice test is required, no
dues are exacted from members, each singer
contributing voluntarily in proportion to what
the inspiration from the conductor and the feel-
ing of association in a good cause is worth to
him or to her as an individuaL"
Essentials of Leadership. — Of the qualities
essential for leadership Mr. Braslow says:
"The qualities that make for leadership are
230
COMMUNITY MUSIC
bom of infinite experience, the most pointed
adjectives can scarcely describe them. How
do we know the leader? Not by what he said,
but how he said it; not by what he did, but
how he acted. He touches the common mind
and it flashes a new glory. His manner reveals a
definite line of cleavage between current doubts,
vague apprehensions and positive faith and as-
surance. He soothes to a wiser conviction.
Fear has no place in his calculation. There is
no 'tomorrow' in his vision. His message
is for all time. The universal energy speaks
through him. Everything conspires to bring
him success. He understands his brother man.
He stirs the latent forces that hunger for self-
expression. He laughs at obstacles. He cre-
ates new conditions. Nature aids and abets his
program. God is his ally. A conductor of a
chorus must possess leadership qualities, at
least in part, before he can make good. He
must recognize success and nothing but suc-
cess. He must never be discouraged. The mo-
ment he loses confidence in himself, blames con-
ditions, shifts responsibilities, relies on mere
231
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
magnetism, or physical personality to carry him
forward, he is lost. Consciously or uncon-
sciously he must reflect a spiritual ideal far
above and beyond passing conditions. He must
be a practical idealist. Expertness in musical
technique alone does not suflfice. A few conduc-
tors in the Community Chorus movement have
this rare promise as leaders. The country
needs them, the world needs them — ^may their
light ever shine with increasing brightness.
Harry Bamhart made plain the basic principle
upon which his choruses were to operate, and
in his grasp of mass psychology, his under-
standing of the crowd, he has shown extraordi-
nary power and vitality. Fifteen years ago he
told Arthur Farwell that somehow, sometime,
we would break away from the class conscious-
ness which obtained with respect to music,
and he pointed out that the Protestant Refor-
mation began when Luther introduced his new
hymns to the people. Mr. Barnhart is today
the leading conductor of the Community
Chorus. Because of certain dynamic qualities
in his character he attracted to the movement
232
COMMUNITY MUSIC
several people of widely different tempera-
ments, experience and ability, which tempera-
ment, experience and ability were precisely the
qualities needed in addition to his own to pro-
duce the work which made the Community
Chorus famous."
Financing the Work. — The financial question
is a vital one in organizing for Community Mu-
sic and one that few have solved satisfactorily.
Mr. John C. Freund carefully analyzed the
whole situation dealing with this question in an
article in Musical America, in August, 1917.
He said:
**The whole idea of the chorus is that it is
an absolutely democratic organization, and as
such it should not depend upon the good will or
the patronage or the public spirit of anyone,
or even of a half dozen persons. Here arises
naturally the question of method. It surely
should be apparent, considering the splendid
work the chorus has done, and the interest that
it has aroused, that there must be in a large city
like New York, more than enough people who
gladly contribute to maintain it, and so to place
it not only upon a solid financial foundation,
233
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
but to make it as democratic in the manner in
which it is supported as it is democratic in its
fundamental idea. For ages music, even more
than painting or literature, has been the pro-
tected child of public spirited or socially ambi-
tious people, who have included emperors,
kings, princes, and multimillionaires. Today
the time has come to take music out of the
hands of the few from under this protection,
democratize it and give it into the hands of the
people. But at the same time in doing so it is
the people who must rise up and contribute to
its support.
*'It is our conviction that the utmost public-
ity should be given to the financial side of the
problems, and the burden be shared, as it can
easily be, by a large number of people. This
could be done without in any way infringing
upon the original idea, which was to bring
together people of all classes, the poor as well
as the rich. We also believe it can be done in
a manner which will not deter people from com-
ing to rehearsals, or from taking part in the
concerts even if they are not able to contribute
the most modest sum. Appeals should be put
out, and with adequate publicity we are con-
vinced that the result will be suflScient to meet
234
COMMUNITY MUSIC
all expenses and will make the organization rest
on contributions of all those who are interested
in such work, rather than have it dependent
upon the public spirit and generosity of one or
two or three individuals. In a word, if the
Community Chorus is to mean anything, if it is
to maintain the idea, and, indeed, the ideal
which started it, its support is a matter of pub-
lic concern and not of private enterprise, how-
ever well meaning and altruistic."
Eight hundred singers participated in the
great "Song and Light Festival" in 1916. One
thousand sang the '* Messiah," and eighteen
hundred the '* Creation." Seven hundred
adults and five hundred children sang Gaul's
"Holy City" at the "Song and Light Festival"
in 1917.
The Spiritttal Conception. — As has been fre-
quently stated in these pages, the most effi-
cient, the most highly organized human ma-
chine can not hope to be a vital factor, a living
force in our national life unless the very ma-
chine itself has been conceived in a soul-con-
scious brain and unless it is directed and driven
to do its mechanical work by a great funda-
235
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
mental power that is truly and wholly spiritual.
No man or woman in America has realized
this more completely than has Kitty Cheatham,
whose exquisite art has touched the heart of the
whole world with its message of purity and
love. From the beginning of the Community
Music movement Miss Cheatham has been its
enthusiastic supporter, its staunch friend, and
always and everywhere she has stood for a
deeper conception, a truer realization of its
spiritual import.
"We have not sung nationally [says Miss
CheathamJ because the fundamental principle
of harmony upon which this nation is founded
— a true democracy — ^has not been expressed in
the songs that are supposed to represent us na-
tionally. This divine democracy must reveal
to every man his immortal birthright of har-
mony— 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi-
ness'. The spiritually awakened American has,
therefore, conscientiously resisted singing the
songs which express the discordant mental
qualities that have produced the world war, and
which are the antithesis of those which gave
birth to our nation. Often they have hidden
236
COMIVIUNITY IVIUSIC
themselves under the guise of cheap sentimen-
tality.
''What do the words of Stephen Foster's
songs — and those of his contemporaries — con-
vey? Death, sorrow, an appeal to the sensuous
emotions, misery, — all that is holding the world
in bondage today.
''The people are weary of these sentiments
and are longing to find and hold their legiti-
mate heritage of freedom, joy, happiness —
which belong to every child of God — and they
will finally ring it out through song. They do
not find this immortal inheritance in singing
of the dying of ' Old Black Joe ' or the burying
of 'Massa's in the Cold, Cold Ground,' or the
painful parting from 'Darling Nellie Gray,' or
the contemplation of 'growing old,' or 'Sil-
ver Threads Among the Gold. ' We can not in-
spire reverence in our large foreign-born popu-
lation, or in our children, by teaching them to
celebrate national patriotism, at this vital mo-
ment in the world's history, by singing such
words as:
" 'Dar's buckwheat cakes an' Ingen batter
Makes you fat, or a little fatter,'
and some of the other verses of 'Dixie.'
237
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
**A careful investigation of the words of our
national songs will surprise and, let us hope,
arouse those who have not given this subject
thought. 'The Star-Spangled Banner' does not
represent us either in words or in music. Eng-
land's Premier, David Lloyd George, said re-
cently, that Great Britain's greatest enemy, the
national evil of drink, was within Great Brit-
ain. Then is it not entirely illogical and dan-
gerous (to those who know the law of cause
and effect), to attempt to unify the Anglo-
Saxon nations- — a God-made unity which must
be cemented before this war can cease — ^by
using as our national anthem, the music of an
English drinking song, sung to words that were
inspired by our bitter conflict with our brother,
Great Britain? The 'bombs bursting in air,'
'rockets' red glare' and 'foul pollution' of a
dead past, must cease, at this glorious hour of
revelation of the 'new created world,' which
America represents in her spiritual conception,
birth and development.
"As a nation we must rise to our God-ap-
pointed mission of spiritual leadership and to
a true community spirit, that will express it-
self in a burst of harmony that will flood the
universe with light and song.
238
COMMUNITY MUSIC
**We gave birth to the * Light that lighteth
all the earth,' — democracy. 'Let light reveal
eternal harmony', should be our keynote and
the fountain source of our music.
**We are a childlike nation, whose constitu-
tional greatness is founded upon its directness
of purpose and utterance, and our future music
will emanate from the consciousness which has
been purified by suffering, caused by the world
war, and which will express itself in purity of
conception — in simplicity, sincerity, beauty and
the rhythm of Spirit. There will be no lack of
response from the people, when those who have
the privilege of teaching them, rise to their
great opportunities.
* ' During one of my recitals at Carnegie Hall
I sang a little 'Lullaby' by Augusta E. Stetson,
and, spontaneously, asked the audience of over
three thousand people, if they would join me in
singing it. I then repeated the words of the
last verse twice, and the response from that
vast assemblage I can never forget. Four times
we sang in unity, and each time the tone was
purer and fuller than before. The true com-
munity spirit of love was voiced, and the result
seemed to be the unified outpouring of melody
from every member of that audience. Such
239
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
experiences, repeated constantly, would quickly
usher in 'Peace on earth, good will towards
men, ' for which all the world is struggling. The
true allied forces of justice, mercy, truth, ten-
derness, love, — these quahties that express true
harmony, would hush the discordant tones of
rivalry, hatred, despotism, that are manifest-
ing themselves in this world war.
''Most of our national songs emphasize dis-
ruption, schism, or, as in the case of 'Yankee
Doodle,' — ^inanity, — ^which Webster defines as
'lack of sense'; which should be destroyed, not
perpetuated. Such songs do not dignify a
nation, and the future generation will not be
equipped for intelligent progress by their use."
CHAPTER XIII
COMMUNITY DRAMA
One of the earliest forms of expression of
that true neighborliness which will make of the
world a real democracy was the Community-
Drama. We find it in the dramatic religion of
the early Greeks, with the dances, the chants,
the choral songs, and we find it today in the
great historical pageants of our cities and our
villages, and in our training camps in America
and in Europe. At the close of the great pro-
duction of "Caliban" in New York City a girl
who worked in a shop and who was in the
Community Chorus, concealed above the stage
out of sight of the audience, made bold to speak
out of a full heart to the director. "Why has
it got to end?" she said. "You have enjoyed
seeing it then?" the director asked. "Oh, I
didn't mean that," she returned, "I mean just
being in it — singing with the others. I have
241
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
never seen it. You see I sing alto, and there
weren't enough altos to be spared to get off and
look on. But I'll never get over the joy of
being in it as long as I live. Somehow things
seem different now. It was all so wonderful."
Mr. Percy Mackaye, author of the Commu-
nity Dramas *'The Evergreen Tree," "Cali-
ban," ''The New Citizenship," "St. Louis,"
' ' Sanctuary, ' ' etc., made an address at a meet-
ing of the American Civic Association, in
Washington, December 13, 1916, in which he
stated the whole purpose underlying the Com-
munity Drama, delightfully and exquisitely.
The substance of this address has since been
published under the title "The Community
Drama," which may be had through the Ameri-
can Civic Association, Washington, D. C.
Everyone interested in the subject should read
this book.
"My ideal of Community Drama is this,"
says Mr. Mackaye, "by means of large and
nobly sensuous symbolism, to harmonize the
complex art inheritances of drama with the
simplicity of Christ's social message, for the
242
COMMUNITY DRAMA
inspiration and expression of growing democ-
racy. In brief, splendidly and efficiently to be
neighbors.'* Mr. Mackaye says the name pag-
eantry is misleading; ''for pageantry, in its
right meaning, is but one phase, and not at all
the most important phase, of the cooperative
art of the theater; and that is why I greatly
prefer the name Community Drama to desig-
nate both the movement and the method which
are involved in this new American relation of
art to democracy. . . . NeigJihorliness: I want
to come back to that word and thought, and re-
peat it with the word drama. Neighborliness
and Drama, the two are so seldom encountered
in Forty-second Street!"
Community Drama in America, however, is
best known imder the term. Pageantry. Much
has been written within the past few years con-
cerning Pageantry, and the records of the great
Community Dramas of Boston, St. Louis, New
York, and many other cities, are easily avail-
able. The village presents a strikingly beau-
tiful and appropriate setting for the historical
pageant, and the value to the young of a com-
243
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
prehensive view of the history of their town
cannot be overestimated. This is especially
true if the section in which the town is located
has been conspicuous in history.
A Village Pageant. — Such a town is Thet-
ford, Vermont. A sort of paralysis had fol-
lowed the introduction of machinery and the
inroads of modern methods of a reconstructed
life had left the town lifeless and dull. Young
men flocked to the cities, industry languished,
agriculture was neglected. From such a de-
pression Thetford was striving to rise and her
spirit was expressed symbolically in a Com-
munity Drama or historical pageant by the fig-
ure of Pageantry, which, supported by strong,
inspiring America, encourages the fainting
spirit of Thetford, until she stoops and draws
from the earth itself a conquering sword. This
pageant did wonderful things for Thetford, and
what Thetford did any small town can do. The
process is simple, and the actual time taken in
preparation and rehearsals is not long.
Katherine Lord, herself a writer and director
of pageants and Community Dramas, and au-
244
COMMUNITY DRAMA
thor and director of the series of charming
children's plays presented with signal success
during successive seasons in New York City,
gives the following practical suggestions for
the benefit of those undertaking such work :
''The organization, promotion and carrying
through the pageant has a certain similarity
whether the pageant be large or small, and the
suggestions here given are based on the plans
of organization actually used and thoroughly
tested in pageants given by communities of
every size, under various conditions, and in
many parts of the country.
"Arousing Interest. — Begin by calling a mass
meeting in the town hall, church, school, or
any convenient place to set forth the idea and
purpose of the pageant. Have the mayor or
other representative of the city government to
preside and thus give to the plans the sanction
of the municipality. Ask one or more of the
local clergy, the high school principal, some of
the leading business men and if possible an
artist, a writer and a musician to assist in
explaining the plan. You will be fortunate if
245
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
you can get a man or woman to speak who
comes from some town where a pageant has
been given. Pictures of pageants given in oth-
er places thrown on the screen will be found
inspiring. Do not discourage your people by
presenting pageant plans for cities larger than
your own. The more informal the meeting can
be made the better and everyone should be
asked for suggestions and opinions. The more
fully the pageant is the creation of the com-
munity the more successful it will be. It is
well however to have in advance a general out-
line of the plan and the chairman should have
a concise list of points upon which suggestions
are needed.
^^The Pageant of To-day. — The pageant as it
is known today is only about a decade old. The
pageant has been variously defined, but the
definition given by a noted authority is *The
pageant is a drama in which a community is
the hero and groups, rather than individuals,
are actors.' We in America have molded the
pageant to our peculiar needs by adding two
elements — symbolism and prophecy. We in-
246
COMMUNITY DRAMA
vented the Pageant of the Idea, which has been
largely used for propaganda, as the pageant
of suffrage; we have often in our pageants
gone forv\^ard quite definitely into the future
as in Boston's pageant of the Perfect City.
There is a strong feeling that the word pag-
eant should only be used for Community Dram-
as of great dignity and importance, and not for
the less formal celebrations which are really
festivals, nor for the more fantastic form prop-
erly called The Masque. Yet in actual prac-
tice it is often so used and for convenience wo
will only use the word pageant, though much
that follows is equally true of the festival and
The Masque.
*' Structure of the Pageant. — The pageant is
divided into episodes, which are scenes having
a relation to each other in being all on a cer-
tain general subject, though they need not have
the continuity or relation of cause and effect
that must mark the acts of a play. Between
the episodes may be put interludes which may
be of an entirely different character. For in-
stance the interludes may carry symbolical
247
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
ideas or present fairy scenes, while the epi-
sodes deal with facts in history. The interludes
are often entirely in form of dance, or dance
and pantomime, or they may be entirely musi-
cal. Again the interludes may represent scenes
illustrating present conditions, while the epi-
sodes may depict the past. In the great Yale
pageant two thousand school children dressed
in blue and green and swaying in unison, typi-
fied the great ocean across which voyaged Art,
Literature, Science, etc., from the old world to
the new. Often the pageant has a prologue
and an epilogue, and these may be quite differ-
ent in character from the main body of the
pageant or from the interludes.
"Choosing the Subject. — The subject of your
pageant will almost choose itself. You may
want to re-create the history of your town in
which you will either construct the pageant
yourself or employ an expert. Perhaps a com-
bination of these two methods is the ideal. An ^
industry that is the life of the town, an art,
the seasons, all have furnished subjects for
pageants.
248
COMMUNITY DRAMA
"Building the Pageant Book. — At first the
idea of writing a pageant book may seem ap-
palling. But no village is so small but wbat
it has a few persons who possess the gift of
literary construction. The minister, the high
school principal, the editor — all have that fa-
miliarity with the pen that will make it easy
to set down the general outhne of your pageant
in good form. The fewer spoken words the
better. The bulk of the pageant should be
presented by processional, pantomime, dance,
the massing or movement of groups, and the
small scenes in which spoken words become
necessary should be concentrated as close to
the audience as possible.
'^ Finding Material. — There is probably no
smallest village that has not several incidents
connected with its founding or early history
that make good pageant material, and in every
community there are men and women who can
recount the stories. Any town which has large
numbers of foreigners among its population
should not fail to have one scene depicting their
life in the 'old country,' and if possible these
249
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
scenes should be enacted by the newly-made
Americans. Thrilling incidents of the Revolu-
tion and Civil War are numerous and interest
is added by having such scenes enacted by the
descendants of those who took the original
parts.
^^The Working Organisation. — Now that the
subject is chosen and the pageant book or
libretto is under way your attention must be
turned to the organization of the pageant. Hav-
ing had your mass meeting, interested the com-
munity, and appointed an organization com-
mittee of from twelve to twenty members you
are ready to begin actual work. The following
committees will be needed: finance, cast, cos-
tume, site, music, ushering, attendance, allied
entertainment, program and printing; and the
chairmen of these committees form an Execu-
tive Committee with a pageant master or di-
rector at the head. The committees should be
small, consisting of three or five members. The
function of each should be distinct and each per-
son should be directly responsible for some part
of the work.
250
COMMUNITY DRAMA
*' Expert Direction Necessary. — The casting
of parts, rehearsals, and stage management of
the pageant must be under the absolute control
of a Pageant Master or Director, aided by a
Music Director and a Dance Director, and by
the various committees. The committee on cast
will round up and present the participants to
the supreme head; the costume committee will
design and in some cases make costumes; the
program committee will attend to the printing
of the program and the securing of advertise-
ments that should cover its cost ; the attendance
committee will see to it that participants are
notified of all rehearsals, pass upon excuses for
non-attendance, and fill places when necessary ;
the ushering committee will have charge of all
seating arrangements and the entertainment
committee will arrange all related festivities,
such as receptions or social gatherings which
often accompany a pageant. It cannot be too
strongly emphasized that the Pageant Master
must be the supreme head and last court of
appeal. While he should make each one of his
assistants responsible for certain work all mat-
251
THE LITTLE DEMOCRACY
ters should be referred to Mm for final deci-
sion.
''Fmancing the Pagecmt. — The expenses of
the pageant will vary according to its size and
scope, but in any case they should be covered
by receipts. If circumstances make it desirable
to have no charge for admission expenses must
be covered by subscription or specific gift but
generally the pageant will be considered more
worth while if a nominal admission fee is
charged. Even though all the direction be vol-
untary and the actors furnish their own cos-
tumes there will be inevitable items of expense.
An estimate of such expense should be made
in the beginning and the project underwritten
to provide for a deficit.
^'Costuming the Pageant. — Decide whether
the scale of costuming is to be simple or elabo-
rate. All costumes must be designed or the de-
signs passed upon by the Costumes Committee.
When possible actors should make their own
costumes as this adds to the community spirit.
In many cases it has been found advantageous
both in the interest of economy and harmony
252
COMMUNITY DRAMA
of color for the committee to buy material in
quantity.
*'The Spirit of the Pageant. — Now your com-
mittees are formed and at work; local papers
will be glad to give assistance by a daily col-
umn of pageant news; old men and maidens
have each their task; young and old, rich and
poor, are working together in an expression of
Community life. Keep the purpose of your
pageant clear; beware of self-seeking, vanity
and jealousy ; make your pageant a real expres-
sion of the people. Then it will be not only
a popular success, but a real achievement that
cannot fail to point the way to a continued
cooperation in the larger life of the commu-
nity."
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
0 006 811 501 2
Live Music
Archive
Librivox
Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland
Museum of Art
Internet
Arcade
Console Living Room
Open Library
American
Libraries
TV News
Understanding
9/11